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Grant in Peace. 



APPOMATTOX TO MOUNT McGREGOR. 



A PERSONAL MEMOIR. 



Adam Badeau, 

Brevet Brigadier-General United States Army, Military Secretary 

and alde-de-camp to general grant, author of military history 

of Ulysses S. Grant, of Aristocracy in England, and 

of Conspiracy, a Cuban Romance. 



HARTFORD: 

S. S. SCRANTON &c CO. 

1887. 



■ 

Badi \r. 






>- 



■+■ +• 




J/f 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I. 
Introductory — Relations of the Author with General 

Grant, 1 1 

CHAPTER II. 
The Terms at Appomattox, iS 

CHAPTER III. 
Grant and the South After the War 2£_ 

CHAPTER IV. 

Grant and Andrew Johnson — Their Original Concord 

and the Growth of a Different Feeling, . . 32 

CHAPTER V. 
Grant's First Step in Politics, 42 

CHAPTER VI. 
Johnson's Manoeuvres, 49 

CHAPTER VII. 
Congressional Reconstruction, 57 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Presidential Obstruction, 64 

CHAPTER IX. 
Continued Conflict between Grant and Johnson> . . 71 

CHAPTER X. 
Grant and Stanton, 77 

CHAPTER XI. 

Grant, Stanton, and Johnson, 84 

(5) 



PAGE 

All. 

95 

XIII. 

106 

XIV. 

116 

I VPTER XV. 

I2 4 

iPTER XVI. 

134 

lPTER XVII. 

[DATE 141 

XVIII. 

i J, 

CHAPTER XIX. 

M'TIK XX. 
I7o 

1 Tl'.R XXI. 
l8o 

'. i'Fl R XXII. 

190 

' rER xxiii. 
197 

XXIV. 

■ 

210 

PTER XXV. 

■ 

:vi. 

-31 



CONTENTS. 7 



PACK 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
Life at the White House, 2 39 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

., ... 247 
Grant and Hayes, H/ 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
Leaving the White House, 2 55 

CHAPTER XXX. 
Grant in England, J 

CHAPTER XXXI. 
Grant and the Prince of Wales, 2 7 2 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

. 281 
Grant at \\ indsor, 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Palace and President, 2 9° 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Grant as a Traveler, 2 97 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Wanderings of Ulysses, 3°7 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The Third Term, 3I 5 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Grant and Garfield, 3 2 4 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Grant and Arthur, 334 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Grant and Blaine, 342 

CHAPTER XL. 

Grant and Mexico, 34 

CHAPTER XLI. 

The Grants and the Lincolns, 355 



g 

PAGE 

R XLII. 

365 

XLII I. 
369 

. ER XLIV. 
373 

lPTER xlv. 

1 3S2 

HAPTER XLVI. 

3QX 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

400 

XLVIII. 
40 - 

i ! K XLIX. 

1 '' NT - .... 416 

HAPTER L. 

BAD] w, . . 462 

VPTER LI. 

66 

I II. 
590 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

The Surrender of Lee, Frontispiece. 

President Elect, " 149 

The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck, ... M 175 

Seward Announcing Victory, "191 

Grant Meeting Gladstone, " 230 

Nellie Grant's Wedding, "243 

Grant Receiving English Workingmen, . . " 270 

Dining with the Prince of Wales, ... " 276 

Grant at Windsor, 288 

Dining with the King of the Belgians, . . " 294 

Hide and Seek in the Alps, " 309 

Grant and Garfield Breakfasting, ... " 328 
Mr. President: I Want to Marry your Daughter, " 413 

Falling on the Ice, " 416 

Grant and Ward, "419 

Awaiting Death, " 428 

Death of General Grant, " 461 

Writing History, " 564 

Riverside, u 591 



(9) 



FAC-SIMILES. 



• ix Grant to General 

■>. • 
: ... 

ax Grant, 
: Geni ax i ' . \xt, 

;. I kNT, 

. 
tIDAN TO GENERAX 



\NT. 

'. T( I GEI ' 




3 
24 

36 

56 

100 
361 

589 



(IO) 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY-RELATIONS OF THE WRITER WITH 
GENERAL GRANT. 

GENERAL GRANT did his country quite as indispen- 
sable and efficient service during the years immedi- 
ately after the Civil War as in the field ; a service often un- 
known to the world, or to more than a very few of the actors, 
or nearest observers of the time. I propose to tell the story 
of the part of which I was a personal witness, or in regard 
to which I can bear peculiar testimony. I shall treat his 
relations with the most prominent persons of the epoch, set- 
ting forth his opinions of them and his feelings toward them, 
and lift the veil from events of importance to history, or to 
the understanding of Grant's character and influence. I 
propose also to make known some of the circumstances of 
his Presidency and later career which have not hitherto been 
disclosed. 

General Grant always knew that I contemplated writing 
his political history, and approved the intention. He prom- 
ised me all the assistance he could give in its preparation, 
and refused his sanction to others who proposed a similar 
task. During his last illness, when it became certain that 
his military memoir would be widely read, I urged him to 
attempt himself a political volume, and he consented to do 
so if I would aid him. The chapters I now offer will include 
material that would have formed part of such a memoir, 
whether it had been written by himself or had remained my 
work, supervised and corrected by General Grant. To this 

(lO 



|a r IN PEA< 

; delicate to have been sub- 

to D given to the world 

Grant began in May, 1863. 

. immediately after crossing the 

tmpaign, he requested 

lie had never seen 

lication on the recommend- 

his inspector-general. 

i • • staff of General T. W. 

gainst Pert Hudson. My 

me till the 27th of May, just as the 

I was wounded 

•ral Grant in 

lary. I thus w him at 

. dished his headquarters, after 

m re than cordial. I was 

sk in his own room at 

entire official correspondence 

1 the first to tell me all the details 

The bill creating the _ 

nd I had 

g its success. He dis- 

.ietv for the 

ire it ; hut, if it 

• fulfill the higher duties it im- 

. neither he disappointed nor 

> ■ ved. 

shington, and 

the armies of the United 

• - military secre- 

nel on his staff. I 

war; 

id the siege of 



INTRODUCTORY. 1 3 

Richmond by his side, and was present at the fall of Peters- 
burg and the surrender of Lee. During the next four years, 
those of the administration of Andrew Johnson, I was his 
confidential secretary and aide-de-camp. I opened all his 
letters, answered many that were seen by no other man, and 
necessarily knew his opinions on most subjects closely and 
intimately. Wherever he went at this time I accompanied 
him. In his tour through the South after the close of the 
war, in his visit to Canada, his journey over the entire North, 
which was one long triumphal procession ; his stay at his 
little Galena home ; during the stormy days of Reconstruc- 
tion and the struggle between Congress and the President ; 
at the time of the removal of Stanton ; the impeachment 
of Johnson ; the attempt to send General Grant out of the 
country; in the Presidential campaign of 1868; clown to the 
preparations for his first administration, I was constantly in 
his society and confidence. 

Enjoying these opportunities for knowing the man, and 
engaged at the time in writing his military history, I natu- 
rally took to studying his peculiar characteristics. For a 
long while he was just as much of an enigma to me as to 
the rest of the world. The apparent absence of vanity, of 
ambition, of pride in his success, of selfishness, was so com- 
plete and so unusual in a man who had achieved such success, 
that I could not at first comprehend him. I soon, however, 
grew into a profound affection for him, which, enhanced by 
my admiration for his achievements, became the paramount 
feeling of my life. All my object and ambition were to help 
build up or illustrate his fame. 

He appreciated this regard and, I thought, returned it 
with a warmth that he did not often display. He allowed 
me to say things to him that few men say to each other, and 
at last he permitted me to see beneath the veil that con- 
cealed the mystery from mankind. I found him a man like 
other men, with feelings as profound as those of the most 









them almost with- 

. -vu-, was natural in part, as 

tion. At times there was 

t of inarticulate 

■ intense ; he did 

He was not 

ut after he 1: long 

the sweets of possession, 

i relinquishing what he had 

. . but he knew his own qualities, 

adulation with 

limity than any other human 

indifferent to the recogni- 

his friends, lie who 

t imperturbable countenance that he 

multitude has told me often with 

the compliments he had 

nsure or criticism 

, iur or five lines, 

own, and whispered : 

sure is no betrayal of his 

no longer be pained. 

and stalwart nature still more 

• linary softnesses 

ng man is nearer to us than 

. i. The Grant that I 

1 le had his weaknesses, 

limes to those who 

t to d< ny this would be 

• 

ilv his moral, but 

in the 1< .i critic 

But he was 

• ■ : to explore his 



INTRODUCTORY. i$ 

nature, confident that I could find little to depreciate and noth- 
ing to dishonor him. I used to ask him how he came to do cer- 
tain notable things, how the idea of some battle or campaign 
had been inspired or evolved in his mind, how he felt in a 
famous emergency ; and he always tried to answer me. He 
was curious himself when I suggested the inquiry. It had 
never occurred to him to examine himself in this way, and 
he was not an expert ; but he would tell me all that he could 
remember or understand. And I always found the same 
simple, unaffected nature underlying all. 

If he was unfair, and he was at times, he did not know it; 
he did not intend to be so. If his likes or dislikes affected 
his judgment, and {hey did, undoubtedly, it was unconsciously 
to himself ; and he always wanted to atone for a wrong when 
he was convinced that he had inflicted one. But it was diffi- 
cult to convince him. 

It is, however, the intellectual side of him that is less 
understood. I never saw anything more curious than his 
intellectual growth. His faculties had never been exercised 
upon any large matters, or on any large scale until the war ; 
then they expanded in the eminently practical career of a 
soldier. All his military greatness came of the plainest 
possible qualities, developed to an astounding degree. The 
clearness of his judgment, the control of his emotions, his 
quick insight into a subject, his large grasp, his determined 
will — these are faculties that any one might possess in an 
ordinary measure without exciting wonder, but these he 
carried into the most extraordinary circumstances, and ap- 
plied on the grandest possible theatre. Notwithstanding all 
this, until the close of the war he had met few great men 
except soldiers, he had studied few great events except mili- 
tary ones, he knew few great subjects or situations, except 
battles and marches and sieges and campaigns. 

When he went to Washington and was thrown into con- 
tact with men trained in the political and social arena, at first 



j IN PEACE. 

the atmosphere ; he was 

. the world, so far as he, at the 

lid avoid it. He disliked 

it - :i perceived that his duty and 

:n into both politics and society, and 

serving, he watched closely. 

lettes which at first had been, 

He learned to under- 

. i 'men — long used to arts and 

i became a skillful simulator, but 

any man that ever lived ; that 

• tl se who were absolutely closest 

penetrating further than 

purposes or desires. 

.1 years when he visited 

ry much struck, at that time, with the 

i his intellect. I was with him at the 

I . him in the company of the greatest 

•re than one brilliant court ; and 

lost recognized. On his 

. very much with him, almost, 

. than ever before, and I was 

■ mndly by his experience 

wonderful journey around the 

it, in his grim struggle with 

.1 then too I recognized that the 

on so grand a scale, 

imple, natural traits that 

' pical man. with his faults 

' by his achievements 

the incidents and describe 
• m me this idea of General 



INTRODUCTORY. \j 

The following letter refers to my plan of writing General 
Grant's political history : 

GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BADEAU. 

Naples, Dec. 18, '77. 

My Dear General, — Your letter and enclosed chapter of 
history were received here on our arrival yesterday. I have read 
the chapter and find no comments to make. It is, no doubt, as 
correct as history can be written, " except when you speak about 
me." I am glad to see you are progressing so well. Hope Vol. 
II. will soon be complete, and that the book will find large sale. 

No doubt but Governor Fish will take great pleasure in aiding 
you in your next book. He has all the data, so far as his own 
department was concerned. It was his habit to sum up the pro- 
ceedings of each day before leaving his office, and to keep that 
information for his private perusal. 

To-day we ascend Mt. Vesuvius, to-morrow visit Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. About Saturday, the 2 2d, start for Palermo, thence 
to Malta, where we will probably spend the 25th. From there we 
go to Alexandria and up the Nile. That is about as far as I have 
definitely planned, but think on our return from the Nile we will 
go to Joppa, and visit Jerusalem from there ; possibly Damascus 
and other points of interest also, and take the ship again at Bey- 
rout. The next point will be Smyrna, then Constantinople. I am 
beginning to enjoy traveling, and if the money holds out, or if 
Consolidated Virginia mining stock does, I will not be back to the 
Eastern States for two years yet. Should they — the stocks — 
run down on my hands, and stop dividends, I should be compelled 
to get home the nearest way. 

Jesse is entirely well and himself again, and enjoys his travels 
under these changed conditions very much. I wrote a letter to 
Porter a good while ago, but have received no answer yet. 

Very truly yours, 

U. S. Grant. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. 

r T^ ■ imattox were neither dictated by the 

1 sted by Mr. Lincoln, nor in- 

nate. Early in March, 1864, the Ad- 

itively prohibited General Grant from 
even discuss the conditions of peace ; 
n Mr. Lincoln and the commis- 
Richmond in February Grant was not 
t There was a determination on the 
: and Mr. Stanton to exclude the military 
ther from the final settlement, after sub- 
secured. During Mr. Lincoln's stay at 
• ' the final movements of the war, he had 
Gi tit, but said nothing to indicate 
he intended to take at the close. 
v uncertain in his own mind, for, 
en, he left much to be determined 
might arise. Even after the fall of 
' the war was evidently at hand, 
inferred for an hour or two 
town, there was no definite line 
the army. Grant only knew the 
tit's views and his dis- 
I make this statement from his 

. knowledge that no subordinate. 
r, either knew or suggested 
(18) 



THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. jg 

in advance the terms that Grant would impose on Lee. 
This fact he has repeatedly stated to me. Matters of such 
consequence he never decided until the moment for decision 
came, and he never in his life arranged the details of any mat- 
ter until it was presented to him for actual determination. 
Thus, until he knew that he had the remains of the army of 
Lee within his grasp, he did not reduce to form, even in his 
own mind, the exact conditions upon which he would allow it 
to surrender. He had indeed long felt that when the w r ar was 
ended there should be no vindictive policy toward the van- 
quished, and he informed Lee at once when they met that 
he meant to accept paroles; but the important final provi- 
sion, that which gives all its peculiar character to the capit- 
ulation, was unstudied, and its language spontaneous. Yet 
the language is as precise as words can make it, and enun- 
ciates a policy which has done as much as victory itself to 
secure the results of the war. " Each officer and man will 
be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by 
United States authority so long as they observe their paroles 
and the laws in force where they reside." 

The terms, however, were not in the least the result of 
chance, or carelessness, or indifference. They were the 
legitimate outgrowth of Grant's judgment and feeling; the 
consequence of all that had gone before ; embodied then for 
the first time, because then for the first time the necessity 
for the embodiment had arrived. In this way Grant always 
did his greatest things. It may be strange or inexplicable, 
but he could not often explain his methods, nor, indeed, 
always his reasons. 

He had at this moment no defined large views about 
separating the military from the civil power, far less any 
intent of encroaching on the domain or prerogative of 
politics. He did not even, like Sherman, take into consid- 
eration the fate or condition of other forces of the enemy, 
although he was General-in-Chief ; he confined himself strictly 



im — the disbanding and dispersion 

that neither that army 

. resist or confront 

I when this was determined he 

•hose members a single 

1 Ie was, I am sure, 

ignanimity in this course. He 

. and little as yet of the far-reach- 

population of the South. 

. and no more; in peace as 

- - I ". that the idea of 

retain their sidearms and personal 

he wrote. He wore no 

moned hastily from his own head- 

: ion of the field, with 

ward. Lee, however, had 

remony. His headquar- 

ridan in the pursuit, and 

suit of clothes, 

In tl . was handsomely ■ 

-word pre- 

.. The conqueror, 

:ed up at his 

1 the glitter of the rebel weapon 

lered the humiliation of 

line permitting officers 

ts. This 

i - e it on General 

r< ted the account 

igns. 

and thus happened 

the result. I said 

' would live forever 

'-uned to him until 



THE TERMS AT APPOMATTOX. 21 

I uttered it The effect upon his fame, upon history, was 
not what he was considering. He was thinking of the cap- 
tured soldiery returning home without their weapons, to 
work their little farms; of a destitute country, ravaged by 
law, but now to be restored. 

I talked with him that night when the others, tired with 
the marches and battles of the week, had gone to such beds 
as the camp provided. I had been used to sit up with him 
late into the night, to write his letters or to keep him com- 
pany, for he could not sleep early. Then he always talked 
with greater freedom than at any other time. This' night we 
spoke of the terms he had granted Lee. There were some 
of his officers who disliked the idea of the paroles, and 
thought at least the highest of the rebels should have been 
differently dealt with — held for trial. This was not my feel- 
ing, and I spoke of the effect his magnanimity was sure to 
have upon the country and the world. He was not averse to 
listen, and declared that he meant to maintain the compact 
no matter who opposed. But Lincoln, he said, was certain 
to be on his side. 

The next clay he met Lee again at the picket lines be- 
tween the armies, and the two generals sat on their horses 
and discussed the condition of the South for hours, in sight 
of their soldiers. Lee assured Grant of the profound im- 
pression the stipulations of the surrender had made upon his 
army, and declared that the entire South would respond to 
the clemency he had displayed. Scores of the captured offi- 
cers had already visited Grant, many of them his comrades 
at West Point, in the Mexican war, or on the Indian fron- 
tier, and thanked him for their swords, their liberty, and the 
immunity from civil prosecution which he had secured them. 

Later on the same day he set out for Washington. Gen- 
eral Ord accompanied him as far as City Point, and then was 
directed to take command in the captured capital. Ord 
shared the feeling I had expressed in regard to the treat- 



IN 

ning my views he asked 

to represent the 

. and to report famil- 
hardly he the subject of 
i to employ his staff- 
complied at once with Ord's 
in a private conversation of the 
. he said, was to foster a 
lered population and sol- 
lenient policy which the terms at 
nd 1 was to assist him in 
I .en duties that would lead me into 

lance, and among other 
stitute was committed 
that time, every one was destitute, 
arrived from Appomattox I had 
i ty, and sent at once to inquire 
and his staff with supplies. He re- 
atly obliged, and did 
ne had the offer not been 
, to sell his 1- . both to obtain 

There was only one 
supplied Congress had pro- 
s: printed tickets were prescribed, 
called the " destitute 
A ticket for a destitute ration was 
1 ral Robert E. Lee and staff. 

Lee requested me to 
ilor's Creek, 
sed on the 
mattox. There were 
. a son of the 
nt considered that men 
their hands were not as yet en- 
e who had surrendered 



THE TERMS AT AFPOMATTOX. 23 

in the open field ; for, it must be remembered, he held that 
he had been fighting rebels. Accordingly the men were not 
paroled at that time. 

Nevertheless, the terms which he refused to extend in one 
instance he was prompt to temper to changed conditions in 
another. In the summer of 1866, a daughter of General 
Lee fell dangerously ill in North Carolina. Lee was then 
living at Lexington, in Virginia, and supposed that his parole 
did not allow him to leave his home, even to visit a dying 
child. I learned the fact and reported it to Grant, who at 
once directed me to enclose a formal extension of his parole 
to Lee, but to state that at this late day he did not consider 
the extension necessary. General Lee acknowledged the ob- 
ligation in the following letter: 

Lexington, Va., August 3, 1866. 

Colonel, — I have had the honor to receive your letter of the 

26th ult., enclosing an extension of the limits of my parole. I 

am very much obliged to the General Commanding the armies of 

the United States for his kind consideration. I am unable to 

visit North Carolina, and therefore did not think proper to apply 

for the favor granted. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

R. E. Lee. 
Colonel Adam Badeau, Military Secretary. 

This was the last communication between the two great 
adversaries growing out of the war. 






fit* ZoU^V> ffj 1 ~£uX Z-tf ^ 





CHAPTER III. 

GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 

THE policy initiated at Appomattox was steadily main- 
tained by Grant. He became no more vindictive after 
the murder of Lincoln, nor did he shrink from the applica- 
tion of his own principles because they were carried further 
by Sherman than he thought advisable. The new President 
was anxious to treat "traitors" harshly; he disliked the 
paroles that Grant had accorded to Lee and his soldiers, and 
steps were soon taken with his approval to procure the 
indictment of Lee for treason. General Lee at once ap- 
pealed to General Grant. His first communication was ver- 
bal, and was made through Mr. Reverdy Johnson, who acted 
as the legal adviser of Lee ; he came to see me to learn 
Grant's feeling. I ascertained that Grant was firm in his 
determination to stand by his own terms, and so informed 
Mr. Johnson. Grant, however, thought that Lee should go 
through the form of applying for pardon, in order to indicate 
his complete submission. Lee, though entirely willing to 
make the application, was anxious to be assured in advance 
that Grant would formally approve it. General Ord, then in 
command in Richmond, made known this feeling of Lee to 
Grant, through General Ingalls, and Grant directed me to 
assure Mr. Reverdy Johnson of his readiness to indorse 
Lee's application favorably. Accordingly Lee forwarded 
two papers of the same date, one an application for pardon 
in the prescribed form, and the other a statement of the 
proposed indictment and of his own belief that he was pro- 

(^5) 



\NT IN PEACE. 

o by his parole. Grant indorsed 
the first with an earnest recom- 
: should be granted, the second 
that the officers and men paroled 

be tried for treason so long as they 

5. 

iss these papers with the Pres- 
. - not satisfied; he wanted, 

- • men be tried?" he asked. 

I ,:.i:it, "unless they violate their paroles." 

i, ami his Attorney-General 

I Grant's contention. Finally 

[ he would resign his commission in the 

rms he had granted were confirmed. I 

Ly when this occurred. He returned 

hamber to his own headquarters and 

i .v. When he recited his language he 

I will not stay in the army 

that I made." 

m of the President gave way, for he 

,, or at least more potent with the 

nd orders were issued to discontinue 

■ : 

ts i 1 1 ".ly once after the scenes at 
!' s in May, 1S69, soon after 
'.rant. Lee was in Washington 
with railroads, and thought it 
nt He was received in the Cab- 
present but Mr. Motley, who 
Minister to England. General 
ed the interview to me. Mot- 
lignified, but he thought 
t in the manner of Lee, who 



GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 2 J 

was indeed always inclined to be more formal than the 
Northern general. The former enemies shook hands ; Grant 
asked Lee to be seated, and presented Motley. The inter- 
view was short, and all that Grant could remember afterward 
was that they spoke of building railroads, and he said play- 
fully to Lee : 

" You and I, General, have had more to do with destroy- 
ing railroads than building them." 

But Lee refused to smile, or to recognize the raillery. 
He went on gravely with the conversation, and no other 
reference was made to the past. Lee soon arose, and the 
soldiers parted, not to meet again until their mighty shades 
saluted each other in that region where conquerors and con- 
quered alike lay down their arms. 

Scores of Southern officers besides Lee applied to Grant 
for protection, and literally hundreds of civilians who wished 
to avail themselves of the amnesty requested his favorable 
indorsement. It was my duty to examine these applications 
and lay them before him ; and seldom indeed was one re- 
fused. General J. Kirby Smith, in command west of the 
Mississippi, did not surrender with the other armies in re- 
bellion, and even when his forces yielded he fled to Mexico. 
But in a month or two he wrote to Grant, applying to be 
placed on the same footing with those who had surrendered 
earlier. Grant thereupon obtained the assurance of the 
President that if Smith would return and take the prescribed 
oath, he should be treated exactly as if he had surrendered 
and been paroled. 

In September, 1865, Alexander Stephens, the Vice-Pres- 
ident of the Southern Confederacy, appealed to General 
Grant in the following letter from Fort Warren in Boston 
Harbor, where he was imprisoned, asking for his release on 
parole or bail. This was soon afterward granted. 



\.\T IX PEACE. 

\- Harbor, Mass., ) 
16th Sept., 1865. ) 

. Washington, D. C. . 

this letter, as well as its explana- 

- herein briefly presented. I am now 

d have been since the 25th of May 

by friends to have me released on 

5, have been. You will excuse 

.in as justly entitled to discharge on 

I allude. No man I think in the 

rs to a greater extent than I did 

iubles of- our country — no man 

the evils and sufferings 

:id to bring about a peaceful solution of 

1 did — no man is less responsible for the 

. with all its horrors, than I 

re earnestly desire "a speedy res- 

nd prosperity, throughout the country 

! can assert of myself. But 

ler a very different aspect of affairs 

ther uninformed. You had 

nt last February. You re- 

j ram from that place to the 

m the conference at Hamp- 

! parted with you on my return 

may recollect, that 

iplished, yet I was in hopes 

3 my hope and earnest 

ppointed, mortified, 

rs, in any undertaking than 

e. I refer to this inter- 

nt reminiscences of 

' ■ ' ; ur own knowledge of 

1 feelings at 

• is simply to ask 

n, to lend the 

Kith the 1 'resident, the 



GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 2 Q 

Secretary of War, and the Secretary of State, for my release on 
parole. I have applied to the President for pardon and amnesty, 
but if he for any reason feels disposed to postpone the decision of 
that matter I am perfectly content. What I desire mainly is a 
release from imprisonment on parole as others, or on bail if it 
should be required. In no event would I attempt to avoid a pros- 
ecution or trial if it should be thought proper for any considera- 
tions to adopt such a course toward me. I wish a release from 
imprisonment on account both of my health and private affairs. I 
might add that I think I could render some service in restoring 
harmony to the country ; that, however, I leave for others to con- 
sider. My case and request are briefly submitted to you. Act in 
the premises as your sense of duty may direct. 

Yours most respectfully, 

Alexander H. Stephens. 

In December of the same year Mrs. Jefferson Davis ap- 
plied to Grant by letter, and in May, 1866, she went in per- 
son to Washington to ask his influence in procuring a remis- 
sion of some of the penalties imposed upon her husband, and 
Grant did use his influence, not indeed to obtain the release 
of the prisoner, but to mitigate the hardships of his confine- 
ment. Mrs. Davis's letter and messages were conveyed 
through me ; the letter was full of respect for the conqueror, 
acknowledgments of his clemency, and touching appeals for 
further mercy. 

"All know you ever," she said, "as good as well as great, 
merciful as well as brave." "Make me," she concluded, 
"your respectful friend." 

The vindictive feeling of President Johnson continued 
for months, and only Grant's interposition preserved the 
good faith of the Government, or rescued many, civilians as 
well as soldiers, from imprisonment and pecuniary ruin ; for 
he urged the restoration of their property as well as the 
remission of personal penalties. In consequence there grew 
up toward Grant a remarkable feeling at the South. I 



. IN PEACE. 

im in November, 1865, when he made a tour 

N th and South Carolina, Georgia, and 

'1 id report upon the condition and 

ilation. Everywhere he was received with 

e who had regarded him the year 

: their adversaries. The Governors of 

lilies instantly called on him; the 

liers and private citizens paid their 

lures invited him to their chambers, 

ns, and rose to greet him formally 

J : .an who had done most to subdue the 

rsall) recognized as its protector and savior 

ot ]'U rely personal. It contributed to 
missive disposition. On the iSth of 
1 ' of his tour, Grant reported to 

'• "the n thinking men of the South 

faith " ; and while he recom- 
1 force should still be retained 

di lared his belief that "the citi- 
to return to self-government 
- possible." This document 
r denounced in the Senate as a "whitewash- 
tesman did not concur with the con- 
South subdued. Before long Sumner 
actions which Grant wished 
1 in believed that the feeling of 
h underwent a change ; and in 
: as to the treatment the 
sentiment at tl : close of the 
I in a letter he wrote to Mrs. Grant 

' neral Grant arrived at 

trolina, having been sent 

rnment to annul the conven- 



GRANT AND THE SOUTH AFTER THE WAR. 



31 



tion between Sherman and Johnston. He at once directed 
Sherman to discontinue all civil negotiations and demand 
the surrender of Johnston on the same terms that had been 
allowed to Lee. While he waited for Johnston's reply, Grant 
wrote the following letter to his wife, which Mrs. Grant 
gave me as a relic twenty years ago : 

Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, ^ 
In the Field, Raleigh, April 25, 1865. \ 

Dear Julia, — We arrived here yesterday, and as I expected 
to return to-day, did not intend to write until I returned. Now, 
however, matters have taken such a turn that I suppose Sherman 
will finish up matters by to-morrow night and I shall wait to see 
the result. 

Raleigh is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and 
filled with the most beautiful spreading oaks I ever saw. Nothing 
has been destroyed, and the people are anxious to see peace 
restored, so that further devastation need not take place in the 
country. The suffering that must exist in the South the next 
year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception. 
People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except 
of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering 
endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling and wish to 
stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted. 

Love and kisses for you and the children. Ulys. 

This letter was written eleven days after the assassina- 
tion of Lincoln. Grant disapproved of Sherman's terms as 
absolutely as Stanton or the President ; he had just revoked 
all negotiations for civil conditions, and insisted on the abso- 
lute military submission of the enemy ; but he was full of 
pity for the people of the South, and had only harsh rebuke 
for the rancor that would inflict further suffering. He turned 
from war and its horrors to the spreading oaks of Raleigh 
for relief, and while waiting the answer to his inexorable 
summons sent love and kisses to his wife and " the children." 



CHAPTER IV. 

ANDREW JOHNSON-THEIR ORIGINAL 
.CORD AND THE CROWTH OF A 
DIFFERENT FEELING. 

Fr the death of Lincoln the relations 
i new President and Grant were of the 
The only point of difference was 
• ment of the South. At first the vic- 
- far more inclined to leniency than 
the President's feeling became 
inter of 1865 he was already more 
itical partisan of the Southerners than 
had elected him. He had conceived 
lout the aid of Congress he could recon- 
ibtless believed that by making 
and offering extraordinary immuni- 
tld build ii]) a national party at both 
Jouth of which he would necessarily be 
ularity of Grant at this period 
win him over to the support of the 

placemen and politicians, 

v manoeuvres except those of the 

ied his magnanimous sentiment toward 

I in no way averse to what 

resident's views. He protested 

Ivised by many Northerners, 

with Johnson than with Stanton. 

(32) 



GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 33 

The Democrats claimed him; the Republicans distrusted 
him. General Richard Taylor came to me about this time 
and proposed that Grant should become the candidate of the 
Democratic party in the next Presidential election, promis- 
ing the support of the South in a mass if it was allowed to 
vote. James Brooks, then the leader of the Democrats in 
the House of Representatives, made similar overtures, also 
through me. Brooks was my intimate personal friend ; he 
always predicted that Grant would be the next President, 
and he was avowedly anxious to secure him for the Demo- 
crats. I invariably told my chief whatever I learned that 
could affect or interest him, no matter what the source, and 
I conveyed these messages to Grant. He sent no reply, nor 
did he indicate either satisfaction or displeasure at the sug- 
gestion. At that time he had no strong political bias, and, 
I believe, no political ambition. Both were slow of develop- 
ment, though both came at last. 

When Mr. Johnson proposed in November that Grant 
should make a tour of the South and report the condition 
and feeling of the people, the General-in-Chief was entirely 
willing. He performed the journey and reported in accord- 
ance with the expectations of the President, but very much 
to the disgust of ardent and bitter Republicans, who were 
destined afterward to claim him as their representative and 
chief. 

When Congress met in December the policy of the Presi- 
dent had been fully developed, and up to that time had not 
been opposed by Grant. Johnson, without any authority 
of law, had appointed Governors in the seceded States and 
allowed their Legislatures to assemble ; he had even exacted 
changes in their constitutions — all without the sanction 
or advice of Congress. He had refused to call Congress 
together, and as that body was without the power to summon 
itself before the ordinary time, this left him from April to 
December at liberty to prosecute his plans. Grant thought 
3 



\\ r IX PEACE. 

had the President convoked Con- 

but he held himself to be merely 

unwilling to intrude into civil 

not been consulted in regard to the policy 

and as Congress was not summoned, and 

•ruction was indispensable, he acqui- 

£ his superior. But he always main- 

• | • was provisional ; that Congress, as the 

le, must eventually decide what 

. and to that decision all must bow. I fre- 

- this view. 

g the winter, however, the President and Congress 

•n rupture. Grant had striven to prevent this. 

;" harmony between the two branches 

ment at so critical a juncture, and he used all 

nfluence which his achievements gave to 

<»ut this harmony. But the President was obstinate, 

entirely disapproved his plan and reversed his 

Mr. Johnson maintained that as soon as any 

acquiesced in the abolition of slavery its 

Imitted to Congress with all 

fore seceding. But grave objections 

The Constitution had origin- 

• the number of representatives should be 

uilation, adding in each State to the 

fifths of those not free. By this 

si s did not vote, the masters 

: their numbers. The anomaly had been 

m promises of the Constitution. But 

population was now free, and would 

in the basis for representation, though 

no vote; so that emancipation actu- 

the number of representatives to 

ititution was entitled. To 

e ; but Mr. Johnson insisted 



GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 3- 

that the States which had revolted should be received back 
into the Union with their political power increased as the 
result of the war. Besides this, he wished to exact no guar- 
antees for the payment of the war debt of the nation or the 
repudiation of that of the South. He claimed the right to 
pardon every man engaged in the Rebellion at his own indi- 
vidual will, and he took no care to protect the emancipated 
millions. On all these points Congress was at issue with 
him. 

Their differences extended to the entire nation. The 
encouragement given by the Executive not unnaturally 
awoke in the South a desire to recover its old ascendency. 
The leaders perceived and accepted their opportunity. They 
of course became the partisans of Johnson and assumed a 
very different tone from that they had maintained immedi- 
ately after the war, while the Northern people were pro- 
voked, fearing to lose what had been won at so much cost. 

Grant tried for a while to hold the balance between the 
two parties. He strove to preserve his original magnanimity 
of feeling, and never swerved from the doctrine that the 
officers of the Southern army were exempt from punishment 
for military acts committed during the war. He angered 
many Northern friends by his insistence on this point. But 
he rebuked what he deemed the offensive tone of the South- 
ern press, and suspended newspapers that made themselves 
especially obnoxious. He refused to permit the reorganiza- 
tion of the State militia at the South. He never forgot that 
a mighty war had just closed, and that he was dealing with 
those who had been the nation's enemies. 

Up to this time his position had been exclusively mili- 
tary ; but the situation developed in him a political vision 
and compelled political action. Both parties to the contest 
wanted to use the prestige of his name ; both laid their 
arguments before him and sought to secure his support. 
The President was full of devices and schemes not always 




-->L^W ~^J^ &>~*^f s? 










GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 37 

creditable. He began by trying to wheedle Grant. He sent 
him constant personal and familiar notes and cards — an 
unusual courtesy, almost a condescension, from a President. 
With these messages he often enclosed slips from the South- 
ern newspapers, complimenting Grant on his magnanimity, 
and predicting that he was sure to support the President in 
upholding the "rights of the South." Two of these notes 
I preserved. They show the intimate footing that Johnson 
desired to maintain. 

FROM THE PRESIDENT. 

General U. S. Grant — Present. 

Will General Grant be kind enough to call as he passes on his 
way home, or such other time as may be most convenient. 

Sincerely, Andrew Johnson. 

I would be pleased to see General Grant this morning if he 
can conveniently call. Andrew Johnson. 

Both of these are in pencil ; the former is without date, 
and the address on each is in the President's hand. 

Once when the difference between Congress and the 
President was at its height Grant chanced to give an even- 
ing party, and the President came uninvited with his family 
and remained an hour or two, an honor almost unexampled 
at that day, when a President neither visited nor attended 
evening parties. He stood by the side of Grant and re- 
ceived the guests, and the circumstance was heralded all 
over the country as an indication of the cordial political 
understanding between them. 

In 1866 a convention was held at Philadelphia of those 
who supported Mr. Johnson's views. It was attended by 
many Southerners and by Northerners who had opposed the 
war, as well as by some who had fought for the Union but 
who now advocated measures less stringent than Congress 
advised. A delegation was appointed by this convention to 



\XT in m:a< l. 

sent resolutions of sympathy 
the morning of their arrival John- 
G int : 



rnvi; Mansion, ) 
•.. D. C, August 18, 1S66.) 



- . etc. : 

ident presents his compliments to you 

i'resence at die reception at the 

i mmittee from the recent convention 

ill take place to-day at one (i) o'clock 

With great respect, 

R. Morrow, 
' lonel and Adjutant-General. 

'. unwilling to take any definite political 

nee at this reception would indi- 

himself obliged to obey the summons of 

He went to the White House with the in- 

g himself, but the President had already 

in th> om, and sent for the General- 

:i him there. Again Grant thought that with- 

: : refuse. So he stood by 

g the entire demonstration, greatly to 

), and returned to his headquarters 

' n at the device by which he had 

• i detest the policy of the 

$e of his petty manoeuvring. 

I V just, the President deter- 

Chicago by way of New York and 

and invited Grant to accompany 

hardly decline such an invitation 

ut Grant, who perceived the 

Mr. Johnson, however, 

finally put the request as 

Kit that it would be hide- 



GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 39 

corous any longer to object, and accordingly accompanied 
the President. As he had anticipated, the tour was con- 
verted into a political pilgrimage. At every point Mr. John- 
son made speeches and received demonstrations in favor of 
his policy, while Grant was dragged about an unwilling wit- 
ness of manifestations which he disapproved. He kept 
himself, as much as possible, in the background, and refused 
absolutely to make any speeches ; but his presence was 
nevertheless proclaimed as positive evidence of his adherence 
to the President's policy. Finally, his disgust was so great 
that he became half unwell, and pleading illness left the party 
and returned to Washington in advance of the President. 

He was not free from the peculiarities of ordinary human- 
ity ; and this entire incident intensified his growing dislike 
to the plans and proceedings of Andrew Johnson. Grant 
indeed had at this time a peculiar aversion to crooked ways 
and diplomatic arts, an aversion perhaps more manifest in 
the earlier part of his career than afterward. For although 
he himself always remained direct — after mingling much 
with the world he found artifice and craft so common that 
the shock of the discovery wore off. But when he was 
new to them they affected him most unfavorably, and the 
chicanery of Johnson disposed him in advance to dislike the 
principles it was intended to aid. Thus the President, by 
his manoeuvres, instead of attracting, actually repelled the 
straightforward and obstinate soldier. It was, however, not 
so much Grant's real concurrence as the appearance of it 
before the world that Johnson probably sought, and some- 
thing of this he secured. Grant was conscious of the unfair 
success, and this very consciousness made him more ready 
to take an opposite stand. 

Congress finally announced its plan of reconstruction, 
which was simply to undo what the President had attempted 
and to refuse admission to the Southern States until a new 
basis of representation was established. The Legislature did 



40 ANT IX PEACE. 

nfranchisement of the blacks, but declared 

'.: to vote was withheld the representa- 

1 by the proportion which the non- 

the whole ; the South should not 

Lsed because of a war in which 

Iso excluded those who had once 

rs of the United States and had 

I in insurrection, from holding office again 

: merit they had striven to overthrow ; it 

redness of the National debt and the 

the Confederacy. These provisions 

in an amendment to the Constitution to be 

all the States, both North and South. In 

in spite of the violent opposition of 

n, the amendment was ratified by every 

1 I President's plan was thus rejected 

■ n .successful in the field. At this 

ime a politician. He threw in his lot 

with whom he had fought. 

Utter illustrates the original aversion of 
politics : 

NT TO GENERAL SHERMAN. 

I Private.) 

of the United States,) 

Washini •.. D. i'„ Oct 18, 1S66. ) 

rday the President sent forme and in 

i if there was any objection to 

I iys. I replied, of course, that 

I wish, therefore, that you would make your 

with me from Cincinnati after the meet- 

' the Tennessee." The Pres- 

ter wh to him about the ist of 

I will remember, and stated 

Q and asked my advice. 



GRANT AND ANDREW JOHNSON. 4I 

I told him very frankly that military men had no objection to the 
publication of their views as expressed upon official matters prop- 
erly brought before them, but that they did not like expressions 
of theirs which are calculated to array them on one or other 
side of antagonistic political parties to be brought before the pub- 
lic. That such a course would make or was calculated to make a 
whole party array itself in opposition to the officer and would 
weaken his influence for good. 

I cannot repeat the language used by me, but I gave him to 
understand that I should not like such a use of a letter from me, 
nor did not think you would. Taking the whole conversation 
together, and what now appears in the papers, I am rather of the 
opinion that it is the desire to have you in Washington either as 
Acting Secretary of War, or in some other way. I will not venture 
in a letter to say all I think about the matter, or that I would say 
to you in person. 

When you come to Washington I want you to stay with me, 
and if you bring Mrs. Sherman and some of the children, we will 
have room for all of you. Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

To Major-General W. T. Sherman, St. Louis, Mo. 






CHAPTER V. 

GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 

GRA] ilitical step was taken when John- 

nstruction was rejected by the North. 
a complete. Not only was the consti- 
:it which Johnson opposed accepted by 
■ ■, but a Congress antagonistic to the 
returned by overwhelming majorities. 
me respects as absolute a democrat as 
! ed implicitly in the rule of the people: 

I, he submitted. He had taken no 
time, but when the will of those 
in the war was definitely known, he declared 
. should be accepted. 
>n, 1 had no idea of submitting. At the 

ive undertaken his enterprise with patri- 
t he persisted after it was plain, not only 
;e who had been his political allies, 
him in the Executive chair, but that he was 
• of the faithful North. Very few 
' el tii »ns except those who had been 
n in the moment of its peril. Grant had, 
for disapproving Johnson's course; 
»n of the people was against 
of the vast majority of Union 
ler. 

remained as determined as ever. 
. but he refused to abide by 
U-0 



GRANT'S FIRST STET IN POLITICS. 



43 



the result of the appeal. The amendment was still to be 
submitted to the Southern States, and every effort was made 
by the Administration to induce them to reject it. They 
were assured that the North would recede from its position 
if they held out ; that the present feeling was temporary, 
and the President's policy in the end must prevail. Grant, 
on the other hand, now took a decided stand in recommend- 
ing submission. He felt that he stood in such a position be- 
fore the country, almost representing the Union sentiment, 
that it became his duty to address the Southerners. 

He had done nothing to induce the Northern people to 
come to their decision, but after the decision was made he 
used all his influence to prevail on the South to accept it. 
That influence with the South was very great. The clem- 
ency he had shown them was not forgotten. His present 
power was not ignored. No Southerner of importance at 
this time went to Washington without presenting himself at 
Grant's headquarters, while many visited his house, and to 
all he proffered the same advice. Formal delegations came 
from the South to consult with public men upon the course 
they should pursue. These all came in contact with Grant, 
who was never unwilling to meet them. 

Among others was a very important deputation from Ar- 
kansas, and Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, although he 
was opposed to the amendment, arranged an interview for the 
party at his own house with Grant. The General-in-Chief 
spoke very plainly ; he declared to the delegates that he was 
their friend, and as their friend he warned them that the 
temper of the North was aroused, and if these terms were 
rejected harsher ones would be imposed. He argued and 
pleaded with them, and with every Southerner he met, for 
the sake of the South, for the sake of the entire country, for 
their own individual sakes, to conform to the situation. He 
assured them that submission to the inevitable would secure 
a lightening of all that was really onerous in the conditions 
now proposed. 



VNT IN PEACE. 

in complete harmony with Grant's 

It was the practical man who spoke, and who 

ined behind if the South failed to 

3 this sagacious foresight Grant 

' feeling at this time that was more con- 

of his inexcitability during the war. He 

i keener personal interest, an unwillingness 

ired at so much cost. Perhaps he 

>ee his own work undone, his clemency 

riment. Of course no such word was 

in, but he certainly never in his career 

nxious or ardent in any task than in his 

the South to accept the terms which 

■ the North would ever offer. 

letter to General Richard Taylor, the 

r-in-1 J fferson Davis, and one of the most in- 

of the Southern leaders, shows that this view is no 

• a or far-fetched criticism: 

\kmiks of the United States,) 
Washington, D. C, Nov. 25, 1866. \ 

-Your letter of the 20th is just received. 
. ::h which this is enclosed, answers a part of 

; tu left here the President sent for me, as I 

my conversation with the Attorney-Gen- 

> :in "• candidly about the course I thought 

the verdict of the late elections. It 

■ in him, hut did not bring out the 

• 1 views not agreeing with 

<■ neral Sickles, who expressed 

' did. 

vera! numbers of Congress 
licals; Schenck and Bidwell for in- 

as to what would 
Qts 1 • p »sed by Congress 



GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 45 

were adopted by the Southern States. What was done in the case 
of Tennessee was an earnest of what would be done in all cases. 
Even the disqualification to hold office imposed on certain classes 
by one article of the amendment would, no doubt, be removed at 
once, except it might be in the cases of the very highest offenders, 
such, for instance, as those who went abroad to aid in the Rebel- 
lion, those who left seats in Congress, etc. All or very nearly all 
would soon be restored, and so far as security to property and lib- 
erty is concerned, all would be restored at once. I would like ex- 
ceedingly to see one Southern State, excluded State, ratify the 
amendments to enable us to see the exact course that would be 
pursued. I believe it would much modify the demands that may 
be made if there is delay. Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
To General R. Taylor. 

But the President's endeavors did not cease. His was 
one of those tempers which opposition aggravates, and he 
became at last violent in his obstinacy. He went over en- 
tirely to those whom he had fought for a lifetime ; he made 
political bedfellows of his bitterest enemies, and of those 
who had been the avowed enemies of his country. He used 
all the authority of his office to dissuade the Southerners 
from accepting the amendment which the entire North had 
ratified. His counsels proved more than pernicious, for the 
Southerners were dazzled by the fallacious hope of obtaining 
all that he promised. They forgot that they had been con- 
quered and were still at the mercy of the conquerors, and 
assumed the airs of wronged and outraged claimants ; they 
acted as if they were already equals in that Union which 
they had attempted to destroy. They, however, were 
far less to blame than the injudicious and ill-tempered 
man whom Fate had placed at this critical moment at the 
head of affairs. Human nature can hardly be expected to 
resist such overtures as he proposed, to put away the 
chance of escaping the penalties they had expected, and 



A.NT IN PEACE. 

had thought beyond their reach. 

suit was lamentable, both then and 

All the long scries of misfortunes and dangers 

1 are directly traceable to the in- 

man. He perverted the inclinations 

S nth, and by reflex those of the 

feeling and good will on both 

precipitated disasters almost equal to 

,-hich the State had barely escaped — disasters 

h is even yet not past. This view of 

thenceforth steadily maintained by 

I knowledge that he held this view his con- 

iated 

ident at last became, if not treasonable in intent, 

•; n. He fostered a spirit that engen- 

. and afterward protected the evil-doers. He 

i irant in private and openly to the public, 

lected by the faithful States was an 

H • d to men's minds that he might 

v the Southerners to return to their places 

■ irth. He made use of his right to com- 

y that awoke suspicion in Grant, and 

me he committed no illegal act, and possi- 

mmanding or directly advocating such 

■ doubt that but for his knowledge of 

it. to play into his hands, he would 

! what those who had conquered would have 

Grant frequently expressed this belief 

nee. 

not only with moderation and 

which was hardly usual in him, 

I to develop because it was 

He avoided offending, and he never 

t. There was still no open rupture, 

. before the public ; and at the 



GRANT'S FIRST STEP IN POLITICS. 47 

very time when many at the North suspected Grant of favor- 
ing the President's views, he was in reality doing more than 
all the country besides to thwart Johnson's designs. But 
he thought it prudent not to alarm or provoke the nation 
by disclosing his fears. This was, indeed, far more than 
tact, it was political and patriotic wisdom. 

And his course throughout all these proceedings was 
entirely his own. He listened to the advice, or opinions, 
or persuasions of those who felt they had a right to offer 
either, but every decision was the result of his own judg- 
ment, of his own instinct of what was right. He seemed 
to me at the time greater than in any emergency of the 
war, and when I look back upon both crises now, I remain 
of this opinion still. 

During these contentions Congress created, or rather 
revived, the grade of General in the Army for Grant. His 
nomination was announced to him by the Secretary of War 
in the following letter : 



'o 



War Department, ) 
25, 1866.) 



Washington City, July 25, 
General, — The President has signed the bill reviving the 
grade of General. I have made out and laid your nomination 
before him, and it will be sent to the Senate this morning. 

Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton. 

Lieutenant- General Ulysses S. Grant. 










w-V. 



fe>X. *AjJ^: C^.^ >^v^/ \ ^ 










vJc v^axw^- V\X^\m S^v^xN 



CHAPTER VI. 

JOHNSON'S MANOEUVRES. 

IMMEDIATELY before the elections which were to give 
the verdict of the country upon Mr. Johnson's policy a 
violent political discussion arose in Maryland, where it was 
well known that a spirit had existed as hostile to the Union as 
in New Orleans. There seemed danger of a collision between 
the State authorities, which were friendly to Johnson, and 
those of the City of Baltimore. The Governor appealed 
to the President for armed assistance, and Johnson made 
several attempts to induce Grant to order United States 
troops into Maryland. Grant's anxiety at this suggestion 
was acute. He held numerous conversations with the Presi- 
dent, and though no disloyal proposition was made to him 
in words, he conceived a profound distrust of Johnson's 
designs. This feeling was shared by Stanton, then Secre- 
tary of War. In the excited state of feeling aroused by 
Johnson's course the use of troops was certain to prove 
exasperating, and it seemed to be the President's purpose 
to tempt or provoke his opponents to some illegal act which 
would warrant a resort to arms. It was too soon after a 
civil war to incur such risks without alarm. 

Grant at once protested verbally but earnestly against 
sending troops to Baltimore. But the President persisted 
in his suggestion. He did not give the order, for he fre- 
quently used all the weight of his position to induce Grant 
to act as he desired, yet failed to assume the responsibility 
of issuing a positive command. Grant therefore wrote an 
4 (49) 



\NT IN PEACE. 

cretary of War, declaring that "no 

ng or promising military aid to sup- 

- The tendency," he said, "of 

I be to produce the very result that 
e averted." The President referred this 

G neral, who was compelled to con- 

.i Johnson, unable to induce Grant to 

without a positive order, took very good 

Grant sent both staff and general 

. and went thither twice in person dur- 

I I e saw both parties to the dispute, 
m to leave the decision to the courts, and 

jer — as signal a service as he had often 
ntry in the field. 

o caused him as much solicitude as 

. action of the period. Occurring immediately 

lions which were to pronounce upon Johnson's 

- nificance. For a while the Pres- 

on sending troops into a region that 

ted, and where the very authorities that he 

by arms had been of doubtful loyalty dur- 

i ted to Grant in writing that there 

isition which might assume insurrec- 

md tint it was "the duty of the Gov- 

' with force and decision." But 

gainst men who had fought 

ad in support of those who had fought against 

• .1 Johnson would be glad to put those 

into the position of rebels, while the 

■ d it would seem to be loyal to the 

cheme was never developed, but 

us care of Grant may have had 

ion than any lack of will on the 

I in my hearing that he knew the 



JOHNSON'S MANGEUVERS. 5! 

intentions of Johnson to be seditious at this time, but much 
of his course throughout the entire crisis was taken because 
he feared they were. He was as anxious to frustrate John- 
son's manoeuvres as he had ever been to thwart those of Lee. 
In each instance he was uncertain of the strategy of the 
enemy, but he fought what he believed to be the enemy's 
plan. He never changed his opinion afterward, but remained 
convinced that had opportunity offered Johnson would have 
attempted some disloyal artifice. Of this he repeatedly 
assured me. 

The following letter to General Sheridan shows Grant's 
apprehensions at this time. It was written while Sheridan 
was in command at New Orleans : 

[Confidential.] 
Headquarters Armies of the United States, ) 
Washington, D. C, Oct. 12, 1866. i 
Dear General, — I regret to say that since the unfortunate 
differences between the President and Congress the former be- 
comes more violent with the opposition he meets with, until now 
but few people who were loyal to the Government during the 
Rebellion seem to have any influence with him. None have unless 
they join in a crusade against Congress, and declare their acts, 
the principal ones, illegal, and indeed I much fear that we are fast 
approaching the time when he will want to declare the body itself 
illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary. Commanders in South- 
ern States will have to take great care to see, if a crisis does come, 
that no armed headway can be made against the Union. For this 
reason it will be very desirable that Texas should have no reason- 
ble excuse for calling out the militia authorized by their Legisla- 
ture. Indeed it should be prevented. I write this in strict confi- 
dence, but to let you know how matters stand in my opinion, so 
that you may square your official action accordingly. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant. 
To Ma jo r- General ~?. H. Sheridan. 

P. S. — I gave orders quietly two or three weeks since for the 



WT IN PEACE. 

:' all arms in store in the Southern States to Northern 
uld see that those from Baton Rouge and 
imand are being moved rapidly by the 
the matter in charge. U. S. G. 

n the Maryland matter and his outspoken 

tion had convinced the Admin- 

1 be induced to take no step at all 

t line of the law ; and when it was seen 

• him, a scheme was concocted to send 

The Government did not indeed 

the victorious head of the army, but they 

him from his functions for a while, 

sherman, who it was hoped would prove more 

Sherman had said and written things 

nt construed into an approval of his policy. 

ted to order Sherman to Washington, but 

ason for the order. 

hibited a peculiar interest in the expul- 

Mexi< ■ and the overthrow of the 

imilian. He regarded the intrusion of foreign 

on this continent not only as a direct 

in interests, but as an act of hostility 

S that would never have been 

it when we were at war. His opinions were 

and had been repeatedly and 

the G( vernment; and the device of 

• • make use of these sentiments 

I him on a mission to the neighboring: 

esence which had become 

I their d 

3 true, was tardily preparing 

.either object nor neces- 

intervention. Nevertheless, in 

ifter the failure of the Balti- 

informed Grant that he meant to 



JOHNSON'S MANCEUVERS. 53 

send him to Mexico. A Minister had already been appointed 
to that republic, and Grant was to be given neither "powers" 
nor authority. No special purpose for the mission was an- 
nounced ; he was simply "to give the Minister the benefit of 
his advice in carrying out the instructions of the Secretary 
of State." It was doubtless supposed that Grant with his 
profound anxiety for Mexican independence would bite at the 
bait. But the device was too transparent ; and Grant, if 
ordinarily unadroit, was yet far-seeing. He usually went to 
the core of a thing, when immediate judgment was required. 
He promptly declined the mission. This was in conversa- 
tion with the President. 

A day or two afterward Johnson returned to the subject 
and announced that he had sent for Sherman to take Grant's 
place in his absence. Congress was about to assemble, a 
Congress hostile to Johnson, and the air was full of rumors 
that the President would refuse to recognize the Legislature, 
and might even attempt to disperse it by arms. Mr. John- 
son had recently seemed to have designs to use the military 
force in Maryland illegally, or at least improperly. Grant 
remembered this, and again declined to leave the country ; 
this time in writing. Nevertheless, in a day or two he was 
summoned to a full Cabinet meeting, when his detailed 
instructions were read to him by the Secretary of State, 
exactly as if objections and refusal had not been offered. 
But Grant was now aroused ; and before the whole Cabinet 
he declared his unwillingness to accept the mission. The 
President also became angered. Turning to the Attorney- 
General he inquired : " Mr. Attorney-General, is there any 
reason why General Grant should not obey my orders ? Is 
he in any way ineligible to this position ? " Grant started to 
his feet at once, and exclaimed : " I can answer that question, 
Mr. President, without referring to the Attorney-General. I 
am an American citizen, and eligible to any office to which any 
American is eligible. I am an officer of the army, and 



\NT IN TEx^CE. 

-- military orders. But this is a civil office, 
ic duty that you offer me, and I cannot be 
ertake it. Any legal military order you 
lit this is civil and not military ; and I 
\ ; .• r on earth can compel me to it." 
ird. Xo one replied ; and he left the 
He returned immediately to his head- 
ted all that had occurred. I took clown his 
. 1 read him afterward this account, 
d. 
• 5 s< ene a copy of his instructions was sent 
im through the Secretary of War, who was directed to 
I to Mexico. But he wrote a second 
tively the duty assigned him. Mean- 
i had arrived Grant had written to him to 
• . to his house, and there explained the situa- 
i subordinate of the plot to get rid of 
ed that he was determined to disobey the 
[uences. Sherman then paid his 
nt. He was informed that Grant was to 
I that he was to command the army in 
• • < reneral-in-chief. But Sherman assured 
■Id not go, and said very flatly 
lord to quarrel with Grant at that 
: he could himself be easier spared than 

.';H of rumors of the object of Sher- 

if the real purpose was abandoned it was neces- 

■ use i" ir sending for him. This 

fforded. In a day or two Grant 

his instructions to Sherman, who 

n his stead.cn the United States ship 

i mmanding. As the vessel 

Sherman turned to Alden and said: 

y i nded. By substituting myself I 



JOHNSON'S MANCEUVERS. 55 

have prevented a serious quarrel between the Administra- 
tion and Grant." 

More than once the soldier friend thus came to the res- 
cue when crafty politicians sought to entangle Grant. I shall 
have other stories like this to tell. At these crises Sherman 
returned with interest all the constancy and loyalty that 
Grant had so often displayed toward him during the war. 
He now cruised along the coast of Mexico, visited one or 
two points, performed no duty of the slightest importance, 
and in a month or two returned. For all that had been 
accomplished he might as well have remained at St. Louis. 
He declares in his memoirs : " I am sure this whole move- 
ment was got up for the purpose of getting General Grant 
away from Washington." Grant always attributed the con-/ 
ception of the scheme to Seward. 

About this time Grant received the following letter, 
which I opened and handed to him. After reading it he 
threw it into the fire, but I snatched it from the flames and 
thus preserved it : 

October, 1866. 

General, — I feel it to be my duty to warn you to be on your 
guard against assassination, also to be very careful of what you eat, 
and zvhere you eat, for the next sixty days. I believe that the 
Knights have spotted you, Sheridan, and Sherman. I have written 
them to be careful. My warning may not reach them. If you can 
warn them do so. As ever, yours, Tewandah, the Scout. 

Nothing more was ever heard on the subject, but the 
letter is curious, as showing the fears that some entertained 
at this time. 






/S~G?b 












_____ ^J>w /^A —A^~ ' && 




CHAPTER VII. 

CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. 

AT the South Johnson's efforts prevailed. Although 
every Northern State had promptly ratified the Con- 
stitutional amendment, yet under Presidential pressure, per- 
suasion, and advice, every Southern State rejected it. 

When this result became known Grant's predictions were 
speedily verified. Congress at once determined that the 
recusant States should return under very different condi- 
tions from those at first proposed. The whole territory that 
had revolted was divided into five military districts, and mili- 
tary rule was declared supreme in each. Commanders were 
to be appointed, with power and duty to protect all persons 
at the South, to suppress insurrection and disorder, and to 
punish all disturbers of the peace and criminals. These 
commanders were expressly authorized to supersede the civil 
courts by military tribunals, and all civil or State govern- 
ment whatever was declared provisional and subject to the 
paramount authority of the United States. This military 
rule was to continue till the colored population was allowed 
to vote, and the amendment already rejected should be rati- 
fied. Then, and not till then, would the seceded States be 
admitted to their former position in the Union, and the stern 
provisions now enacted be annulled. This measure passed 
both houses of Congress in March, 1867, by large majorities 
over the President's veto. 

Grant was at this time completely in accord with the 
Legislature. The change in his opinion and in his feeling 

(57) 



LANT IX 

not only by his deference to the 
rth, and his indignation at the chicanery 
e by the action of the South. 
sident's course had aroused a 
.. hich Grant believed dangerous to the 
Acts had been committed and a dis- 
1 which he considered should be repressed 
The population that had been subdued, 
1 again. The reports from his subor- 
d him that the Union people at the South 
without Northern over-rule, that the blacks 
. in short that the results he had fought to 
I ; and believing as he now did that 
e nded to the conquered had been abused, 
-'.raining those who had shown themselves 
: treatment. He agreed fully with Con- 
ical means of securing what had 
in the extension of the suffrage 

[id not favor this step, but he looked upon it, 

ncipation duiing the war, as rendered 

I ! was not a man much governed by 

away by theories; he saw the un- 

• this time fur the ballot ; he recog- 

them to the suffrage; but he 

• • r w than that of allowing those 

ccn the nation's enemies to return untrammelled 

to provoke new dissensions and 

war. He was gradually brought to 

to secure the Union which he 

Northern people had fought for, a 

uth friendly to the Union was in- 

tt until the South was willing to concede 

kept under military rule. 

i . and the convert unwill- 



CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. $g 

ing — but when once he accepted the new faith, he remained 
firm. 

Six weeks before the passage of the reconstruction meas- 
ures he wrote to General Howard, at that time in command 
of the Freedmen's Bureau : 

[Confidential.] 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, 
Washington, January 18, 1S67. 

Dear General, — Will you be kind enough to send me a list 
of authenticated cases of murder and other violence upon freed- 
men, Northern or other Union men, refugees, etc., in the Southern 
States for the last six months or a year. My object in this is to 
make a report showing that the courts in the States excluded from 
Congress afford no security to life or property of the classes here 
referred to, and to recommend that martial law be declared over 
such districts as do not afford the proper protection. 

Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant, General. 

To General O. O. Howard, Comg. Freedmeii's Bureau, etc. 

On the 4th of March, two days after the passage of the 
Reconstruction bill, he wrote to his intimate friend Wash- 
burne, who was then abroad : 

. . . " Reconstruction measures have passed both houses 
of Congress over one of the most ridiculous veto messages that 
ever emanated from any President. Jerry Black is supposed to 
be the author of it. He has been about Washington for some 
time, and I am told has been a great deal about the White House. 
It is a fitting end to all our controversy (I believe this last measure 
to be a solution, unless the President proves an obstruction), that 
the man who tried to prove at the beginning of our domestic 
difficulties that the nation had no constitutional power to save 
itself, is now trying to prove that the nation has not now the 
power, after a victory, to demand security for the future. . . , 

" Do not show what I have said on political matters to any 






NT IN" PEACK 



: a subordinate should criticise the acts 
lie manner. I rely upon our personal 
speak to you freely as I feel upon all 

:is in regard to the President were 

merdid the subordinate commanders 

h to carry out the law than the Adminis- 

thwart them. Sheridan, who was in 

leans, found it necessary to remove 

. and immediately Johnson claimed that 

- " | no power under the law to make 

In this he was supported by his Attorney- 

raphed to Sheridan, approving his 

: • he should make no further remov- 

:re indispensable. He was firmly of the 

. but was anxious to avoid a 

President and the district com- 

A Utter to Sheridan of the 5th of April, 1867, 

• lit the policy that Congress and 

lennined on ; and yet to act with caution 

:\ : 

[Confidential.] 

, — When I telegraphed you a few days 
r a while in the matter of further 
nder the authority of the reconstruction 
' ■ ■ .. that the Attorney-General had taken 
■ such authority to district com- 
reparing an opinion to this effect, 
hostility to the whole Congressional 
I the White House, and a disposition to 
imand you now have. Loth the Secre- 
tin oppose any such move, as well as 
O urse you have pursued you are 
I thought it well, however, to 
; you can get along without 



CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. 6t 

making them, until we see the opinion which is probably prepar- 
ing. There is nothing clearer to my mind than that Congress 
intended to give District Commanders entire control over the civil 
government of these districts, for a specific purpose, and only 
recognized present civil authorities within these districts at all, for 
the convenience of their commanders, to make use of, or so much 
of as suited them, and as would aid them in carrying out the 
Congressional plan of restoring loyal, permanent governments. 
. . . One thing is certain : the law contemplates that District 
Commanders shall be their own judges of the meaning of its pro- 
visions. They are responsible to the country for its faithful execu- 
tion. Any opinion from the Attorney-General should be duly 
weighed, however. The power of removing District Commanders 
undoubtedly exists with the President, but no officer is going to 
be hurt by a faithful performance of his duty. My advice to you 
is that you make no more removals than you find absolutely neces- 
sary. That you make none whatever except it be for the grossest 
disregard of the law and your authority, until you see what decis- 
ions are to be made. That then you make up your mind fully as 
to the proper course to pursue, and pursue it, without fear, and 
take the consequences. I would not advise you to any course that 
I would not pursue myself, under like circumstances, nor do I 
believe that I advise against your own inclinations. I will keep 
you advised officially or otherwise of all that affects you. I think 
it will be well for you to send me a statement of your reasons for 
removing Herron, Abell, and Monroe. It may not be called for, 
but twice the question has been asked why you removed them." 

This letter marks what to me was a new development in 
Grant's character. He was becoming accustomed to the 
wiles that he found he must fight, and at this period dis- 
played a greater degree of adroitness than I often noticed in 
him, before or afterward. The skill with which he points 
out to Sheridan how to avoid a premature conflict with the 
Executive ; the nice point he makes that though the Attor- 
ney-General's opinion is entitled to weight, commanders are 
their own judges of the law and responsible to the country; 



IN PEA 

. . which he asks for a statement of Sheri- 

meet a hostile demand, 

ixperienced politician. The fact is that 

;• and an apt scholar; his experi- 

n taught him that frankness with 

the game, and he never 

a. He was always good at cards, and had 

his hand. I have heard men say 

• e profoundest dissembler of his time. I 

the opinion ; nevertheless, though he never 

: withheld, a great deal from friends 

He d.id not furnish a copy of this letter to 

e time that he wrote to Sheridan he sent the 
■ Washburne : 

■n well here now under the Congres- 

n bill, and all will be well if Administration 

i influence do not defeat the objects of that meas- 

een no absolute interference with the acts 

. all of whom are carrying out the measures 

■ the spirit of their acts, but much dissat- 

■ 1 at Sheridan's removal of the Xew 

Sheridan has given public satisfaction, how- 

hows himself the same fearless, 

1. lie makes no mistakes. 

tting abroad this year. I am 

se that my duties cannot be per- 

• ■ well as myself, but Congress has made it 

. and whilst there is an antago- 

I the legislative branches of the 

■ ' ligation to stand at my post that I 

rebel armies in the field to contend with. . . ." 

' b tween the President and Congress 

that ill I the traits of 

arge — his regard for the 



CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION. 63 

feelings of those whom he cared for. I was not converted 
so soon as he to the belief that harsh measures were neces- 
sary in the treatment of the South ; and he was always 
willing to listen to the opinions of those about him on impor- 
tant affairs. I recollect discussing the situation with several 
other officers in his presence, and maintaining my views with 
fervor though they were contrary to his own. The contro- 
versy became excited, and Grant himself took part. At last 
he exclaimed : " Why, Badeau, I believe you are a Copper- 
head." I felt the blood mount to my forehead at the taunt, 
so unusual from him, and could hardly speak for a moment. 
Then I stammered that I thought my past might have saved 
me that reproach, at least from the head of the army. But 
the words were only half spoken when he interrupted, and 
retracted what he had said, with tones and glances that 
repaid me for all the pain he had inflicted. All that day he 
took care in a hundred little ways to do me kindnesses and 
to show that he was striving to make amends. For this 
stubborn, silent soldier was as considerate for the sensitive- 
ness of a friend as ever he was anxious for the welfare of 
the State or for victory over a rebellious enemy. 



general sherman to general badeau. 

Headquarters Army of the United States, | 
Washington, D. C, Feb. 12, 1SS2. \ 
Dear Badeau, — ... I rather like the idea of your pre- 
paring a History of Reconstruction ; only it seems to me that it 
will be a tight squeeze to get all the essential facts into a small 
volume of the size of Scribner. It will be better to collect the 
materials and allow the size to result from them. Reconstruction 
was a corollary of the war, and forms a continuation of the sub- 
ject-matter of your past work, and it so happens that your Hero 
in war was Leader in the Reconstruction. So I see no reason 
why it should not form a fourth volume.* 

In whatever you may undertake you have my best wishes. 
Truly your friend, W. T. Sherman. 

* Extract from letter in fac simile, page 589. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRESIDENTIAL OBSTRUCTION. 

TIP — miction policy of Congress was of course 

the South, and with the knowledge that their 
red by the Head of the State, it was per- 
oral that a population just emerging from 
-.] should look to seditious action at this crisis. 
odications of such a course, especially at New 
e Sheridan was in command. He so reported 
laid the matter before the President and the 
After consultation with those authorities 
the following order to Sheridan. I give 
inally penciled it, with his subsequent omis- 
: brackets. Together they show both his first 
Taint he put upon himself to convey no 
of the President's view: 

' prevent conflict or riot (under the authority 

bill and recent act of Congress). The 

r district commanders are named in relation to 

d to by opposing parties in Now 

I has now under consideration the ques- 

rict < ommanders] is now taking steps to 

into effect The President directs 

e law and prevent conflict or riot by judicious 

and] order be preserved and the law 



l". S. GRANT, General. 



id: "The President directs that 
(64) 



PRESIDENTIAL OBSTRUCTION. 65 

order be preserved in New Orleans and the laws enforced." 
With this Grant sent a copy of the Reconstruction law. 
This he had not been directed to do by the President. 

The whole force of the Reconstruction measure lay in 
the power of the District Commanders to remove civil offi- 
cers who opposed or obstructed the new law. Mr. Johnson at 
once took the ground, as I have shown, that no such power 
existed in those commanders. Grant knew personally and 
positively that Congress had intended to confer this power, 
for he had been constantly consulted during the preparation 
of the bill. Indeed, it had been proposed not only to oestow 
the power on District Commanders, but on himself, as their 
superior. This, however, he disadvised. He was still un- 
willing to be placed in open antagonism to the President, 
and, besides, thought it wise not to provoke him by public 
humiliations or unnecessary restrictions of his authority. 
He had therefore urged that the appointment of District 
Commanders should be left with the President, and that the 
supervisory authority also should be committed to the Execu- 
tive rather than to the head of the Army ; for he believed 
that Congress could maintain a sufficient check upon any 
hostile action of the President. 

Johnson, however, at once made it certain that his claws 
had not been so closely pared but that he could still do seri- 
ous mischief. Nevertheless, Grant remained averse to taking 
or advising any step which might aggravate the difficulties 
of the situation. His policy at this crisis is shown in the 
following letter of April 21, 1867, to Sheridan: 

[Private.] 
" My Dear General, — As yet no decision has been given by 
the Attorney-General on the subject of the right of District Com- 
manders to remove civil officers and appoint their successors. It 
is likely, however, that he will give attention to that subject and all 
other questions submitted to him arising under the Reconstruction 
act, as soon as he is through with the Mississippi motion to file a bill 
5 



ANT IN PEACE. 

t certain parties to restrain them from execut- 

In the meantime I would advise that 

,1 officers obstruct the laws they be suspended 

i amissions. This right certainly does exist 

mmanders, and I have no doubt myself 

their power to remove arbitrarily. The law- 

i templated providing military governments for 

until they were fully restored, in all their relations, 

1 . rnment. They evidently only recognized pres- 

ts as provisional, for convenience, to be made 
I '.. mmanders, just so far as they could be used 
it the will of Congress, and no further." 

2 most important matters under the new law 

in of voters. This was to include all male 
ut distinction of race, color, or previous condi- 
: • such as had been disfranchised for participa- 

m, or for felony at common law ; and every 
■ resorted to at the South and indorsed 
ure the registration of those whom Con- 
led to disfranchise. The subject was con- 
ore the District Commanders, who 
rred all' intricate points to Grant. On this 
Sheridan in the letter already quoted: 

subje i can register under the law, I think it 

ci hide only those who are excluded from 
r the Constitutional amendment, and those who 
n disfranchised for infamous crimes, such as 
fore the Rebellion as sufficient cause for dis- 
there is no greater crime than thai of 
• ■ .'/. But that is the particular 
. the Reconstruction Act except to certain 
m their previous relations to the 
' dlty than the rest. The supple- 

die oath prescribed to be taken before 
to provide for the disfranchisement of a 



PRESIDENTIAL OBSTRUCTION. 



6 7 



class of citizens that ought always to be disfranchised in every 
community, for their gross violation of law, and could not have 
been intended as a further punishment, or the punishment of other 
classes, for the crime of treason against the Government. By the 
same rule of judging I do not think that a class of citizens w r ho 
heretofore have not had the elective franchise can be excluded for 
acts which would not have disfranchised them had they possessed 
the privilege of voting. I give this only as my views on the sub- 
ject. If I were commanding a district, however, I would require 
registering officers to keep two lists. On one I would register the 
names of all about whose right to register there could be no doubt, 
and on the other all those about whom there might be doubt. 

" There has nothing new transpired affecting you. I think your 
head is safe above your shoulders, at least so that it cannot be 
taken off to produce pain." 

The last sentence refers to the intention Johnson had 
already manifested to remove Sheridan, because that officer 
was evidently determined to obey the law. 

On April 21st, the day when he wrote thus to Sheridan, 
Grant sent the following dispatch to Pope, another of the 
District Commanders. There are passages in this letter 
which in ordinary times might have subjected its writer to 
trial by court martial for insubordination and disrespect to the 
President. But a court martial must have been composed of 
men who had fought for the Union, and it is doubtful if one 
could have been formed to pronounce Grant's course at this 
juncture other than patriotic and commendable. 

GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL POPE. 

" My Dear General, — Having read Governor Jenkins's ad- 
dress to the citizens of Georgia, I was on the eve of writing you 
a letter advising his suspension and trial before a military com- 
mission when your dispatch announcing that the Governor had 
given such assurance as to render your order in his case unneces- 
sary was received. . . . My views are that District Commanders 
are responsible for the faithful execution of the Reconstruction Act 



££ GRANT IX PEACE. 

1 that in civil matters I cannot give them an order. 
. however, for what they are worth, and 
• them of views and opinions here which may 
their guard. When General Sheridan removed 
in the State of Louisiana, an act which delighted 
. and none more than the supporters of the Con- 
struction Bill in Congress, it created quite a stir, 
he opinion in other quarters, that he had 
ithority. I presume'the Attorney-General will give 
, the subject of the powers of District Corn- 
civil officers and appoint their successors, 
i will forward it to all the District Commanders. 
in that the power of District Commanders to try 
mmissions exists. I would advise that 
I to i ;her than arbitrary removals until an 
Attorney-General, or it is found that he 
ne. 
< neral, that I have watched your course 
that <>f all the District Commanders, and find 
that does not show prudence and judg- 
>\ that all you have done meets with the appro- 
• the act of Congress executed in good faith:" 1 

tion and moderation mingled with deci- 

■ advised the subordinates whom 

held that he could not command. They 

with the same deference as if it had been 

! it implicitly. Sheridan, Sickles, 

I >ril, the five District Commanders, all 

vith him and with Congress, although all 

ccn without any tinge of abolition sentiment and 

fully with the original magnanimity of 

with the army enormous, 

i »untry was at this time at its 

the knowledge of this popularity 

sen from manifesting open resentment 



PRESIDENTIAL OBSTRUCTION. 



6 9 



at the course of his subordinate. Wherever Grant went he 
was attended by enthusiastic crowds ; audiences at the thea- 
tres, and congregations in churches rose when he entered ; 
the actors themselves applauded him from the stage, the 
preachers prayed for him by name from the pulpit ; towns 
were illuminated because of his arrival ; triumphal arches 
were built for him. The population of the North seemed 
unanimous in its manifestations of affection and admiration ; 
the supporters of the war because he had been victorious, 
the friends of the South because he had been magnanimous. 
It is impossible to understand either Johnson's forbearance 
or Grant's authority all through this epoch without bearing 
constantly in mind that Grant was the most popular man in 
America. 

I visited with him every important city at the North, and 
witnessed the ovations he received from millions. I was 
constantly at his house in Washington, and saw the thou- 
sands who thronged to his receptions there. I gave out the 
invitations to his parties, and was besieged with requests 
from the illustrious and the obscure ; from foreign Ministers 
and Southern Generals, from people of highest fashion, who 
were proud to be seen at his entertainments, and from pri- 
vate soldiers and humble citizens, who were made as welcome 
as any. Those who had scorned him and the cause that he 
represented, who had pretended to think him common and 
plain, were swept along with the current ; women of politics 
opposed to his own, who once had positively refused to be 
presented to him, now made efforts to obtain admission to 
his house; and especially every man who had ever fought 
against him was ready to do him honor, for every man felt 
that he owed him his parole, and every officer his sword. 

All this was known to the President, who came, as I 
have said, to Grant's parties with all the rest of the world. 
At one of Grant's receptions at which Mr. Johnson was pres- 
ent, I recollect also Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-Presi- 



•AT IX PEACE. 

Hen Confederacy, recently released at 
I Erom his prison; the Minister of the 

I . and the family of the Mexican President, 

r had through Grant's interposi- 

• : a crowd of fashionable Northern wo- 

ads had opposed the war, and every officer 

. wh< » was then in Washington. The specta- 

iciety crowding around the first soldier 

mtry impressed the Head of the State, and made 

1 that it was better to seem, at least, in accord 

a than to be known as his political adversary. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CONTINUED CONFLICT BETWEEN GRANT AND 
JOHNSON. 

DURING the summer of 1867 the conflict of opinion and 
effort between Johnson and Grant became positive, 
though it was still in a great degree concealed from the 
country. The President's opposition to the Congressional 
policy continued. He held that the Reconstruction acts 
were unconstitutional, and that consequently he was not 
bound to obey them. Grant held that only the Supreme 
Court could pronounce on the question of constitutionality, 
and that until it should pronounce, all officers, from the Presi- 
dent down, were bound to obey the law. In May and June 
the Attorney-General delivered the opinions which Grant 
had foreseen, and did his best to neutralize the force and 
defeat the purpose of the legislative action. The President 
directed Grant to forward these opinions to the District Com- 
manders. Grant obeyed, but at the same time informed the 
commanders that they were their own interpreters of their 
own duties and powers ; and as the President gave no positive 
order on the subject none of them conformed their action to 
the Attorney-General's opinions. The President, of course, 
observed the tacit disobedience, but he was powerless to 
control or punish his subordinates. He had disregarded the 
will of Congress, and in return the officers of the army 
disregarded his. The situation was approaching mutiny on 
one side, or else treason on the other. 

Congress had adjourned at the end of March and left the 

(70 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

tirely in the hands of Grant, 

. far he concurred with them in 

at. Some, indeed, knew that he was in 

islature, but many still doubted his 

•.xr, Congress met again, and by 

rity had become convinced that Grant was 

themselves rather than with the President ; 

who yet distrusted him thought Recon- 

r in his hands than in those of Johnson. A 

ry law was at once passed, increasing and defin- 

the District Commanders, confirming all 

iving them the right in terms to sus- 

from office any civil functionary holding 

• authority, and defining the conditions of 

i that it was impossible any longer to misstate 

intention of the law. But more than all, the 

•iite made the acts of the District Com- 

: approval of the General of the Army, 

inal power of removal and suspension 

him which they enjoyed, and it was made 

1] as theirs to exercise this power whenever 

irry out the purpose of the law. This actually 

t with the supreme duty of supervising the 

the Union. 

iw intrusted to the General-in-Chief made 

ndent of the President. He 

tive, I am sure, unwillingly, but believed 

the pn servation of those results which the 

cure. At an earlier stage in the 

that this peculiar jurisdiction should not 

in, and lie consented to receive it only 

! tli.it Johnson was determined 

v. For Grant had been continually 

ration of the supplementary act, 

limit his own authority and to restrain the 



CONFLICT BETWEEN GRANT AND JOHNSON. 73 

most ardent of the President's opponents. It was at one 
time proposed by some too-zealous Congressmen to make 
him almost a Dictator over the Southern States and entirely 
independent of the President, but against this he advised in 
the strongest possible manner, as subversive of the princi- 
ples of the Government, and his counsels prevailed. He 
not only had no ambition for additional power, he even yet 
shrank from assuming an attitude of avowed or public antag- 
onism to the President. He disliked both the appearance 
of this before the people, and the reality, however disguised ; 
but he submitted to what seemed under the circumstances 
unavoidable. If I had any power of reading his feelings, 
the position into which he was thrust was not only unac- 
ceptable to him, but positively painful ; yet he would not 
shirk it. He wrote to Sherman at this time : 

" In this particular there is little difference between parties. 
No matter how close I keep my tongue each tries to interpret 
from the little I let drop that I am with them. I wish our politi- 
cal troubles were ended on any basis. I want to turn over the 
command of the Army to you for a year or so, and go abroad 
myself. But to leave now would look like throwing up a com- 
mand in the face of the enemy." 

What he did with the Republicans at this time was not 
for them as a political party, but because he believed that 
the acts of the President had made their course the only one 
practicable. Nevertheless, he was dragged by circumstances 
into political relations which those about him began to 
perceive must soon become defined. He was too shrewd 
and clear-headed not to understand this himself, but I cer- 
tainly believe that he disliked the prospect. He still dis- 
claimed any partisan bias, and was unwilling to be called 
either Republican or Democrat. I saw nothing in him, I 
heard no word from him, in all this crisis that betrayed any 
political aspiration or indicated the faintest ambition to 



GRANT IN TEACE. 

■ac\: I never saw him more 

sons spoke to him as if he 

Presidential candidate, and if the 

• intimacy he recognized ever 

. he put it away and was evidently 

he never admitted to me that the 

sirable. Rawlins told me that 

the subject with him, and Mrs. 

t the idea was most distasteful to the 

.ho knew the influence she maintained 

it husband will believe that he could have had 

.. ;.: . she was ignorant. 

nstitutional reticence must be constantly kept 

who wish to appreciate his character. 

reason to suppose he did 

, seemed to him immodest to uncloak 

r even entirely to his most intimate 

t, if he would, expose his opinions and 

■ he met. He was indignant at those 

e further than he chose to allow, and 

from them who got closest. He had 

from one friend, of politics from another, 

j knew all. I found out 

in the last months of his life that I 

I St not that he had erao- 

l without revealing to his wife 

ever loved wife or children more 

ntar) At t was passed he entered upon 
r that required all the forbearance, 
which he was master. He was a sub- 
en made in 

' .. 3 naturally indignant 

anomalous, an I oven 

md that it was indispensable 



CONFLICT BETWEEN GRANT AND JOHNSON. 75 

in order to save the State. But Congress believed the Presi- 
dent not only hostile to the true interests of the country, 
but recusant to the expressed will of the people. The era 
was indeed revolutionary and the circumstances unprece- 
dented. The time was out of joint, and Grant felt that it 
was his unwelcome task to set it right. It was made his 
duty both by law and by patriotism to carry out a policy 
which the Head of the State sought by every means to defeat 
and destroy; and Grant determined to perform the duty. 
Nevertheless, he succeeded even yet in maintaining the 
appearance of amicable relations with the President. He 
showed him all the deference clue his office, and was able, to 
postpone for a while longer the fiercest phases of that hostil- 
ity which was destined to break out at last between the 
Executive and Congress. 

His equanimity of temper was as important at this junc- 
ture as either his steadfastness or unselfishness of purpose. 
He had no anxiety except to do his duty and save his whole 
country, North and South, from further peril. He felt that 
it was as important not to inflame passion as to carry out a 
policy. He was as careful not to exasperate North or South 
as to perform any other service to the State. A word from 
him would have excited Congress beyond its own control ; 
an appeal to the North might have precipitated another war. 
But he kept to himself, or to the very few in whom he con- 
fided, his knowledge of many exasperating words and deeds ; 
he cautioned his subordinates; he strove to hold in check 
the hot-heads in Congress, so that even yet there were 
Republicans who doubted him and only used him because 
he was a necessity. He felt especially — I often heard him 
declare it — extreme reluctance to the use of arbitrary power 
at the South. He was republican in principle and democratic 
in sentiment, if ever a man was cither, and he took no 
arbitrary step, except unwillingly. But he felt that the 
emancipated millions must be protected, that the recently 



AM IX PEACE. 

held in check, if necessary with 

.. as anxious to appease passion, to 

le, the legislative and executive 

■rnment, to preserve the democratic 

. his own magnanimous feeling toward the 

firm, and if needful stern, in holding all 

mired. He treated those who had been 

well as mere)' ; he was determined to 

k Unionists ; he would carry out 

highest officer, his own superior. 

it heartily into the spirit of the reconstruction 

i 1 : ; the removal of all Southern function- 

• really anxious to renew their allegiance, 

e time urged the remission of the penalties of 

• ise who proved themselves repentant, 

J. He counseled his subordinate commanders 

watched them closely. But he took care not 

rs. His letters to these officers are 

• to overstep his own limitations. But up 

immanders without exception took 

and really pacific management the evil 

J most laid ; murder became less 

lore frequent. The population itself de- 

tion with military rule, its preference for 

•vernment. It liked, indeed, 

. and hugged its hardships. For 

the law, the South knew there was no 

ttes the registration of the new 

if Reconstruction would be 

I last to the distracted 

is powerless and the 

pared to submit to what 

ibmitted before at Vicksburg and 



CHAPTER X. 

GRANT AND STANTON. 

WHEN Johnson discovered that in spite of all his 
opposition Reconstruction under Grant was becom- 
ing a reality, he remembered that he had still another wea- 
pon in his armory. It was in his power to remove the Dis- 
trict Commanders and the Secretary of War — who were 
now all diligently engaged in the execution of the law. 

A wide difference of opinion had early become apparent 
in Johnson's Cabinet, the members of which were originally 
appointed by Lincoln, but had been retained by his succes- 
sor. As soon as the new President betrayed his antagonism 
to those who had elected him, four out of his seven Ministers 
refused to second what they considered his apostacy. In 
July, 1 866, the Postmaster-General and the Secretary of the 
Interior resigned, and in September they were followed by 
the Attorney-General, who was a Southern man, but unable 
to approve the President's policy. Three of those who re- 
mained supported Johnson and became abettors of all his 
devices and designs. Seward, the original Republican leader, 
fell away completely from his old associates ; Welles, a bitter 
Democrat before the war, returned to his early allies ; and 
McCulloch, who had never been prominent in politics or 
public life, decided to retain the place to which he had been 
elevated on the resignation of a superior. 

But Stanton, the Secretary of War, the Minister who 
had been most important of all, both to Lincoln and the 
country, who by his position and ability and energy and 

(77) 



\NT IN PEACE. 

me more than any other civilian except Lin- 
te; without whose efforts indeed the 
have been saved— this man remained in 
what he deemed the dangerous and 
of the President. The relations of 
: had been peculiar. They had never met 
o Chicamauga, when at Stanton's 
iced in command of the Western 
:> interview of a clay occurred when they 
from Indianapolis to Louisville and dis- 
. situation. After Grant became General- 
intercourse was necessarily constant and con- 
ven then hardly intimate. In Washington 
' of Lincoln than of the Secretary, and his 

o dence with the Government was always 
eck, the Chief-of-Staff of the army. They 
onal dence, and I doubt if they ex- 

letters in their lives. 

I ant full liberty in all matters of strategy, 
r interfered. When Grant started on the 
campaign both of these official superiors assured 
I no wish to become acquainted with his 
well as the President, promised 
; and he kept his word. He left 
to hi Id the hands of the General-in-Chief. 
1 great admiration for Grant nor 
ection for him, but he was a 
\ and so far as I can recollect, the last 
of Grant was in his comments, pub- 
the victory at Donelson. In his re- 
nt the war there is not one word 
iie sent him all the men and aims 
; : he made all the assignments of 
i that Grant requested; he never 
or interrupted one of his move- 



GRANT AND STANTON. 79 

ments. There were times when he probably did not concur 
with Grant, but he deliberately subordinated his own opin- 
ions to those of the soldier on all military points. Some- 
times when Grant was too far away to be easily reached, 
Stanton, probably by Halleck's advice, made dispositions or 
appointments that Grant did not approve, but if subse- 
quently Grant wished these steps reversed, Stanton never 
objected. During Early's invasion of Maryland telegraphic 
communication between Washington and City Point was 
interrupted for a while, and great confusion and alarm 
prevailed at the capital. Several movements were ordered 
without Grant's knowledge, all of which proved abortive. 
In this emergency Stanton finally appealed to Grant. He 
directed Charles A. Dana, then Assistant Secretary of War, 
to say to Grant that unless he gave positive directions and 
enforced them the result would be "deplorable and fatal." 
When Grant placed Sheridan in command in the Valley he 
did it knowing that his own confidence in that officer's 
capacity was not shared by the Government, but neither 
Lincoln nor Stanton interfered, and all this, though Stanton 
was an imperious man, fond of power, used to authority, 
and never doubting his own judgment in civil affairs. But 
he had made up his mind to intrust plenary authority to 
Grant, and he carried out his intention heartily and abso- 
lutely. Grant fully appreciated this course. 

They had one little difference at Chattanooga when Stan- 
ton insisted on controlling the cipher operator at Grant's 
headquarters, but this was soon forgotten ; and Stanton 
always directed Grant's telegraphic orders to subordinate 
commanders to be taken off the wires as they passed through 
Washington, so that he might inspect them. Grant some- 
times would have preferred to withhold the information these 
dispatches contained, lest it should be made public too soon ; 
but Stanton was within his rights, and the subject was never 
broached in their correspondence or conversation. At every 
serious point their harmony was undisturbed. 



-^ INT IN PEACE. 

t General Grant always made to me. 

his life he expected and intended my 

be the final authorized expression 

Hid whatever I wrote for that history was sub- 

n. In the winter of 1S79 I sent him 

with Stanton which is similar 

iven ; he found nothing to correct, but replied 

: mber [8th: " Your chapter on Stanton is. 

a historical character I ever read. I 

that it will be so considered by others when 

the public." 

T accompanied Grant to Washington 

tit. It was at a time when Stanton's enemies 

re making every effort to procure his removal. 

I interview with Lincoln in which they dis- 

• . and the same day he told me what had 

Lincoln, he said, introduced the subject, and 

if a change took place he would consult Grant 

n< w War Minister. But Grant at once 

nt to make no removal. He declared that 

etl r fitted for the position ; that the 

. and patriotism of Stanton were undoubted, 

r himself he certainly desired no other superior. 

• that the urgency of Grant on this 

ned Stanton's hold on the President. 

tit felt a little sore at a sharp message 

. forbidding him to hold any 

purely military matters, and 

him who attributed what they thought 

•'Mi's influence. But they were 

• ■ with his own hand and without 

• h that Stanton forwarded. But even 

reat patriots who 

was doing imlispens.il. le service 

. were alike so interested. 



GRANT AND STANTON. g r 

After the war, however, Stanton assumed all the authority 
of his office. When every one else was paying court to 
Grant he showed that he thought the Secretary of War the 
superior of the General of the Army. He gave Grant orders, 
as he had a right to do, and always sent for him when he 
wished to see him officially. This may have nettled Grant a 
little, as it certainly did some of his personal friends ; but 
it never annoyed him as much as it did others. There 
was once, indeed, a question almost of authority. Stanton 
insisted that all orders by the General-in-Chief should be 
submitted to him before they were issued by the Adjutant- 
General of the Army. Sometimes he delayed giving the 
necessary authorization, but when Grant protested in writing 
the difficulty was obviated. It was an old question, and had 
arisen in the days of General Scott ; it came up again, or 
something like it, after Grant had ceased to be General of 
the Army. Grant once had a letter written to the President 
appealing to him from Stanton's action in the matter, but he 
tore it up, and there was no rupture or open disagreement. 

There was always, however, a sort of personal barrier 
between them. Grant respected profoundly the services 
Stanton had rendered the country, and I doubt not the senti- 
ment was reciprocated. But Stanton was harsh and austere 
in manner, and apparently cared little for the feelings of 
others. He doubtless had his affections and his intimacies, 
but Grant was included in neither ; and at times the harsh- 
ness was extended even to him, probably without intent, 
perhaps unconsciously. But Grant was in reality one of 
the most sensitive of men. He regarded the feelings of 
others carefully, and it was always painful to him to inflict 
pain. Although few supposed so, he felt acutely all the 
censures and attacks and even the slights of which he was 
the object. He said nothing, perhaps, when he received 
them, but there was abundant evidence, which those who 
were with him closely could detect, that Grant was a thin- 
6 



ANT IN PEACE. 

1 . erefore these asperities of Stanton wounded 

led at his own success and his 

- conscious that he had done 

the country; he knew that he occupied 

re the world ; and the attention and 

rec ived were far from disagreeable to him. 

of all this, one man roughly asserted or 

: ity, sent fur Grant as he would for a lieu- 

.ved his orders as General-in-Chief to remain 

. ed, Grant was touched, as any other human 

been under the circumstances. He did 

. : sent what he disliked, for Stanton never tran- 

technical rights — though he sometimes ap- 

-but the recollection remained and 

srmanent impression. Thus without any abso- 

ever occurring, and while on all important 

re in complete harmony, their personal 

- never familiar, and hardly agreeable. I do 

enjoyed the other's society. But 

e true patriots and earnest men. The moment a 

the country or to each other was in- 

tty unrevealed sentiment was ignored or 

my mind their behavior to each other was 

had been warmly and personally attached. 

remark. As I look back upon these 

all my partiality for my personal chief, I 

1 that while Stanton was undoubtedly lacking 

- withheld some of the consideration 

.tilled, he doubtless believed that he 

rtant principle — the superiority of the 

in. the doctrine that even a victorious 

is under our institutions, the subordinate 

of the Government. 

I ' . the only points on which the 

try had ever differed. They would be 



GRANT AND STANTON. g-j 

insignificant if their effect and importance had not been 
unduly magnified. They are to be mentioned only to be 
disposed of, brought forward only to be brushed away. 
Grant had a higher respect for the character and services of 
none of his compatriots than for Stanton. He had been 
a cordial co-worker with him in the War, and he was now 
as cordially working with him in a crisis which both consid- 
ered was as important as any through which they had already 
passed. 

Stanton's accord with Grant at this crisis is indicated 
in the following informal note written in pencil, which I 
preserved : 

General, — I have received the copy of General Sheridan's 
telegram. I do not remember when he proposed to close the 
registration, but think it was the ioth or 15th of June. There 
appears to be no necessity for any action until we can confer 
together, and in the meantime General Sheridan can let his orders, 
if he has made any, stand until he gets instructions from you. 
Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton. 

General Grant. June 22, '67. 



CHAPTER XI. 

CRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. 

D\j] pring and summer of 1866 both Grant 

.vcre opposing their common superior, for 
that superior was opposing the declared will 
f the , to whom Presidents are responsible. Stanton 

1 the I abinet for the express purpose of prevent- 
1 carrying out his opposition to the law. 
. d by the mass of those who had been 
the Government during the war. It was ap- 
mt, with whom the fact that the people had 
int. Even had he disapproved the law 
e felt it his duty to enforce it, and he was 
ill as pained at the spectacle of the President 
( net devoting their energies and arts to 
truction and evasion of the law. 

some twinges of annoyance at Stanton's 

r, he put away the remembrance now, and 

nit this entire crisis the two were heartily in accord. 

nstantly how best to execute the intent of 

of him whom Stanton at least deemed a 

nton, indeed, being in the Cabinet, 

en more than Grant of the designs and 

President. He had never relented from 

. rebellion, and Grant, once so 

tally brought to a frame of mind in 

nd by the side of the Secretary. 

unprecedented in the history of the 

(84) 



GRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. 35 

country. A Cabinet Minister and the General of the Army 
were doing their utmost to thwart the President; the two 
men of all then living who had been foremost in the struggle 
against rebellion were opposing the successor of Abraham 
Lincoln. The President himself, and all but one of his legal 
advisers, were engaged in the effort to subvert or pervert the 
declared will of the people, and those who in ordinary times 
should and would have been his most faithful supporters, 
now deemed it their highest duty to watch him, to check 
him, to detect his plans, to disclose to each other his move- 
ments, to unmask his designs, to circumvent and restrain 
and baffle his schemes. For they regarded the man who 
.should have been the first servant of the State as at this 
moment its most dangerous enemy. They thought he was 
undoing all that they had achieved, bringing back the rule 
they had overturned, defying the decision of the faithful 
North, installing sedition in the place of loyalty. On the 
7th of June Grant wrote to Sheridan as follows : 

" I was absent from here on my way to West Point when the 
correspondence commenced between you and the Secretary of 
War which culminated in the removal of Governor Wells. I 
knew nothing of it, except what was published in the papers, until 
my return here yesterday. The Secretary's dispatch was in obe- 
dience to an order from the President written on Saturday before 
starting South, but not delivered to the Secretary until Monday 
after I left my office. I know Mr. Stanton is disposed to support 
you, not only in this last measure, but in every official act of yours 
thus far. He cannot say so because it is in Cabinet he has to do 
this, and there is no telling when he may not be overruled ; and it 
is not in keeping with his position to announce beforehand that 
he intends to differ with his associate advisers." 

In fact both Grant and Stanton were frequently com- 
pelled to issue orders the purpose of which they abhorred ; 
orders which, though clearly designed to conflict with the 
intention of the law, were skillfully framed so as to be tech- 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

I its terms. They then more than once dis- 

which they too could apparently obey 

. superior and yet neutralize his intent and 

r to Sheridan was written under peculiar 

and to explain away the apparent disapproval 

I : nt had gone to West Point, whither I 

d him, but his visit was suddenly terminated, and 

Washington because of a telegram from 

•utant-General at his own headquarters, 

; only these words: "You are needed here." 

[uence of an agreement he had made with 

• I he should be summoned in this way, if neces- 

the telegram from a captain was in reality a 

i the Secretary of War. It meant, and Grant 

it, that the President of the United States 

; mischief, and that the General of the Army 

elp frustrate the design. Grant at once 

ements and hurried back to Washington. 

the behavior of both Grant and Stanton 

it must be borne in mind that this was no or- 

ical crisis. It was not a struggle for office, or a 

r a bankrupt law in which they were 

pute that followed hard on a terrible civil 

i onstruction of the Union that was at 

• was whether the States that had seceded 

that had rebelled should be re-admitted 

kt place with or without the stipulations and 

h the victors had decided to demand. More 

3 held out by Johnson of easier terms had 

ambition and disturbed the quiet of the South. 

I disastrous convulsion there were 

■ perhaps ready to seize any 

t they had lost; there was a pop- 

recently set free, living among their for- 



GRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. $y 

mer masters ; there were the Unionists of the South in the 
midst of the unsuccessful Confederates ; there was every 
cause for anxiety, every passion and sentiment to be ap- 
peased and allayed and controlled. 

All these seething elements of disorder were stirred up 
by Johnson's obstinacy. The Southerners would have sub- 
mitted to the inevitable, but he encouraged and incited them 
to hold out still. If the decision of the North was accepted 
by the South, there would be an end of the trouble, but by 
the stimulating conduct of the President, by his incessant 
public and private provocations and persuasions and exhorta- 
tions, he prolonged the struggle and made worse things 
probable. It was the apprehension of still further confusion 
and re-awakened strife that made the situation so critical, and 
justified Grant and Stanton to themselves in their anomalous 
and extraordinary course. They believed that by steadily 
carrying out the will of Congress and of the people in spite 
of the President they would put an end to the chaos, and 
bring back peace and the Union on the only terms which the 
victorious North would tolerate. 

This feeling of his subordinates was of course known to 
the President, and it was no secret that he wished to rid 
himself of his War Secretary. But the friends of Congress, 
Grant among them, counseled Stanton not to resign. It 
was feared, however, that Johnson would peremptorily dis- 
miss the Cabinet Minister, who was no longer in his confi- 
dence, and Congress took extraordinary means to prevent 
this action. The well-known Tenure of Office bill was 
devised in order to make it impossible for Johnson to remove 
subordinates who were not in harmony with his views. The 
President naturally desired to have only his own supporters 
in office at such a crisis, while Congress was determined 
that those whom Lincoln had appointed should not be dis- 
placed by the successor who had certainly betrayed his party, 
and who they thought was ready to betray his country. So 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

gainst the protestations and over the 

:it, prohibiting him, without the approval 

ving officers whose confirmation 

.1!. The rule was extended, 

ns, to members of the Cabinet; and 

diowed to dismiss a Minister until the 

He was at liberty, however, during the 

, I ■ suspend any officer for cause, but 

to the Senate when it re-assembled. 

; red, the officer was dismissed; if 

d. This law, it was matter of notoriety, 

irence to the Secretary of War. It was 

h, and Congress adjourned on the 20th of 

vard, Mr. Johnson sent for Grant and 

intended to suspend Stanton, and at 

Sheridan from Xew Orleans. He 

meant to appoint Grant himself Secretary 

There could be no possible doubt of 

I .. - intended to nullify as far 

1 "ngress, to punish men for striv- 

. to hinder the Reconstruction policy. 

hoped to accomplish much by 

ce. Still the soldier was less 

S 1 retary, less uncompromis- 

and his military habit of 

ve misled the President. He 

in the arts of political chicanery, 

ssible still to inveigle 

it the especial object doubtless was, 

e Granl I affect the people, to 

: on the country that Grant was in 

on, and that by entering the 

s he was offering proof of his sympathy 



GRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. 89 

There was also doubtless a personal reason why Johnson 
wished to foster this idea. It was plain by this time that 
Grant's popularity was likely to make him a Presidential 
candidate, and the belief that he sustained Johnson would 
destroy his hold upon the Republicans. Grant had indeed 
so successfully concealed his opposition to the President 
from the public knowledge that the mass of the people could 
easily be led to suppose he was Johnson's adherent. This 
would naturally antagonize the Republicans, while, with the 
President's party, the President himself of course was chief. 
Johnson probably feared no rival but Grant. He flattered 
himself he could defeat any other candidate of the Repub- 
licans, so that by making Grant impossible he would secure 
his own success. Thus the Administration undoubtedly 
hoped to enjoy the benefit of Grant's popularity at the very 
moment they were seeking to undermine it ; a bit of craft 
worthy of Machiavelli, or of Seward. 

But Grant protested earnestly against the entire proposi- 
tion. He not only did this promptly in conversation, when 
Johnson announced the design, but on his return to his own 
headquarters he wrote the famous letter marked " Private," 
which has already been given to the world. I quote the 
portion referring to Stanton : 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, | 
Washington, D. C, August 1, 1867. ) 
[Private.] 
His Excellency, A. Johnson, President of the United States : 

Sir, _ I take the liberty of addressing you privately on the 
subject of the conversation we had this morning, feeling as I do 
the great danger to the welfare of the country should you carry 
out the designs then expressed. 

First, on the subject of the displacement of the Secretary of 
War. His removal cannot be effected against his will without the 
consent of the Senate. It is but a short time since the United 
States Senate was in session and why not then have asked for 



GRANT IX PEACE. 
90 

red? It certainly was the intention of 

nch of the Government to place Cabinet Min- 

of Executive removal, and it is pretty 

: • ' -.. s 1 far as Cabinet Ministers are affected by 

., it was intended specially to protect the 

m the country felt great confidence in. 

the law may be explained away by an astute 

. sense and the views of loyal people will give 

t intended by its framers. . . . 

.. me to say as a friend, desiring peace and 

: the whole country North and South, that it 

than the loyal people of this country 

who supported the Government during the great 

will quietly submit to, to see the very men of all others 

d confidence in, removed. 

taken the liberty of addressing the Execu- 

51 tes thus, but for the conversation on the 

I to in this letter, and from a sense of duty, feeling 

1 rig t in this matter. 

With great respect, your ob't serv't, 

U. S. Grant, General. 

several interviews within the next few clays 

subordinate strove to change the determination 

■ . but Johnson remained immovable. Grant 

known the President's purpose to Stanton 

i to others in his confidence. These 

was not in session, and the princi- 

c might have consulted were absent. He 

with Stanton the course he should pur- 

.- the President persisted. It was agreed that 

vent was to accept the position prof- 

ble prevent further mischief. He 

irse when Stanton was no longer 

thus mitigate some of the evils of his 

at delayed Johnson's action just five 



GRANT, STANTON, AND JOHNSON. g l 

days. Then, on the 5th of August, in a formal letter, the 
President requested Stanton's resignation. The same day 
Stanton answered, also in writing, that " public considera- 
tions of a high character constrained him from resigning 
before the next meeting of Congress." Again Johnson hesi- 
tated for a week; but on the 12th of August he issued an 
order in strict accordance with the provisions of the Tenure 
of Office act, suspending Stanton and appointing Grant Sec- 
retary of War ad interim. 

Grant thereupon addressed the following letter to Stan- 
ton, of which I preserved the original draft, with the lines 
struck out by Grant's own hand : 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, ) \ 
Washington, D. C, August 12, 1867. i 
Sir, — Enclosed herewith I have the honor to transmit to you 
a copy of a letter just received from the President of the United 
States, notifying me of my assignment as Acting Secretary of 
War, and directing me to assume those duties at once. 

In notifying you of my acceptance, I cannot let the oppor- 
tunity pass without expressing to you my appreciation of the zeal, 
patriotism, firmness, and ability with which you have ever dis- 
charged the duties of Secretary of War. 

With great respect, your ob't serv't, 

U. S. Grant, General. 
To Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 

To this Stanton replied as follows : 

War Department, ) 
Washington City, August 12, 1867. S 
General, — Your note of this date, accompanied by a copy of 
a letter addressed to you, August 12th, by the President, appoint- 
ing you Secretary of War ad interim, and informing me of your 
acceptance of the appointment, has been received. 

Under a sense of public duty I am compelled to deny the 
President's right, under the Constitution and laws of the United 



\ 









o V 






. - 







g, ANT IN PEACE. 

me from office as Secretary of War, or to 

>on to enter upon the discharge of the 

) require me to transfer to you or any 

•rds, books, papers, and other property in my 

Secretary of War. 
the President has assumed to suspend me 
of War, and you have notified me 
nee of the appointment of Secretary of War ad 
: i alternative but to submit, under protest, to the 
resident 
i cept my acknowledgment of the kind terms 
notified me of your acceptance of the Presi- 
nt, and my cordial reciprocation of the sentiments 
■ 

:n, with sincere regard, truly yours, 

. ix M. Stanton, Secretary of War. 
5ES S. Grant; 

I quite pleased with this letter, which 

to imply that he was in accord with the President, 

that he should not have accepted the post, but 

I hardly have been in an amiable mood when 

d, even toward the unwilling instrument 

ince that Grant felt made no difference in 
Th too momentous for any personal 

to interfere. He had been thoroughly 

1 to the country, and he became Secre- 

ir with the intention to do his utmost to carry 

which Stanton was removed for persisting to 



CHAPTER XII. 

CRANT AND SHERIDAN. 

STANTON had fallen and the next official victim was to 
be Sheridan. Stanton was suspended on the 12th of 
August, and on the 17th Grant received the President's 
commands for the removal of Sheridan. He at once pro- 
tested against the execution of the order. He was indeed 
profoundly moved, and even exasperated ; for his regard for 
Sheridan had now become personal. Sheridan had almost 
grown up as a general under Grant's own eye, until finally 
the chief declared the subordinate the peer of any soldier 
of any time. Often have I listened to Grant's encomiums 
of the Soldier of the Valley ; more than once have I wit- 
nessed manifestations of regard on both sides as touching as 
they were honorable to him who gave and him who received. 
The history of their relations is like a story from Homer. 
It was the friendship of chieftains, the love of strong men 
who had stood side by side in war, and watched each other's 
deeds. Soon after Shiloh Sheridan joined the army in Ten- 
nessee and so distinguished himself that Grant at once 
perceived his military quality. In September, 1862, Grant 
was ordered to send a portion of his command to re-inforce 
Rosecrans. He was at the landing himself when the troops 
embarked, and noticed Sheridan among them at the head of 
his brigade. "You here, Sheridan!" he exclaimed; "I did 
not mean that you should leave me"; for he was unwilling 
to lose a man of whose stuff he was so sure. But Sheridan 
thought that to go to Rosecrans at that time was to go 

(95) 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

iuld be most fighting, and he showed no 

lin. Grant was nettled at this, and allowed his 

. little dreaming, either of them, then, 

they were to be to each other on grander 

I irant told me this story years ago, to 

Sheridan I was writing for The Century 

. :, the chief followed the subaltern to the 

an, at Chattanooga, the fiery spirit and 

mended themselves to his superior. 

j] .ving language of Sheridan's charge 

and still more warmly of the pursuit of 

ird. He had already detected that quality 

istrious soldiers — the power to make the 

nt became General-in-Chief, he at once put 

of the Eastern cavalry. I remember 

the new commander whom at that time 

, and his praise was enthusiastic when he 

and ability, the promptness and per- 

[inate. Grant indeed always became 

i he talked of Sherman or Sheridan. His 

then, however taciturn at other times. 

hed with generous ardor, his eye gleamed, 

little when he told of the achieve- 

: who could ever by any chance 

I t.f the great things Fortune had in store 

at this time reluctant to leave the 

1 ist unwilling to serve near 

ived at the command of a division; he 

n and they to him ; he would have 

the field that he knew and with the 

Bui I was too good a soldier 

.11, and he went without murmuring 



GRANT AND SHERIDAN. gj 

to the theater where he was to become so renowned, and to 
the chief with whose fame his own was to be forever asso- 
ciated. From that time I can testify to the confidence, 
the chivalrous admiration, the commendation which Grant 
bestowed on his cavalry commander. In the Wilderness 
campaign the young general (he was only thirty-two), was 
constantly given the most difficult and dangerous tasks. 
When he was sent off on a distant expedition his formal 
orders went through Meade, but Grant always saw him in 
person and added verbal instructions, explaining his views, 
defining his aim, but leaving all details of execution to the 
subordinate. They easily understood each other, they had 
so much in common. 

When Early advanced upon Washington Grant selected 
Sheridan to oppose him, against the wish of the Govern- 
ment, which thought him too young and inexperienced for 
the position. But the avalanche of success crushed out all 
criticism of the choice. In 1878 Grant wrote me on this 
subject from the Hague : 

"Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th, with inclosure, 
was received before my departure from Paris. But I had no time 
to do more than read your letter before leaving, so brought the 
whole here to examine and approve, or otherwise. I have made 
marginal notes in pencil of all I have to say. I do not think there 
is anything to strike out, nor anything to add except what you 
can get from the notes referred to. You may recollect that when 
I visited Sheridan at Charleston I had a plan of battle with me to 
give him. But I found him so ready to move — plan and all — 
that I gave him no order whatever except the authority to move. 
He is entitled to all the credit of his great victory, and it estab- 
lished him in the confidence of the President and Secretary of 
War as a commander to be trusted with the fullest discretion in 
the management of all the troops under him. Before that, while 
they highly appreciated him as a commander to execute, they felt 
a little nervous about giving him too much discretion." 
7 



~ . '.XT IX PEACE. 

j ■ Grant's delight over the telegrams 

m Sheridan during this campaign. They 

him usually as we sat around the camp-fire 

ting for news often till late into the night, 

ind dreary autumn of 1864. No success 

j • 2 East for months. Lee still held off 

Richmond, and Hood had compelled Sher- 

• ps from Atlanta; political hostility at 

the situation at the front seem darker even 

. and the first gleams of light came from 

i the Valley. As Grant read out the 

"We sent them whirling through Win- 

. "They were followed on the jump twenty-six 

: . • : •'. ught it best to delay here one day and settle 

general"; — his voice betrayed how wel- 

aews. "Keep on," he replied, "and your 

•^ will cause the fall of Richmond." The inspira- 

v — cs and the encouragement they gave 

g( rm of one of the most beautiful friend- 

time he relied on Sheridan as completely as 

The final movement against Petersburg had 

■ .. . 5. More than one of those whose 

ften beetled advised him to return. He 

my ; not despondent, for that I never saw 

undly anxious. But one dark and 

heridan came riding into camp, and talked 

•\. so intelligently of what he could 

tagious. Grant was in his tent so 

• met the staff. The officers were struck 

tone; they knew the estimate Grant 

lent, and were anxious for Sheridan to say 

1 the chief. They took the great trooper 

1 int perceived the spirit of Sheridan, 

:e had come, lie gave him the task he 



GRANT AXD SHERIDAN. qq 

said he could perform, the orders he asked for, and the result 
was — the battle of Five Forks. 

That battle Grant always acknowledged made possible 
the final assault on Petersburg, and opened the way for the 
Appomattox campaign, in which Sheridan led the terrible 
pursuit, fought Sailor's Creek, and outmarched Lee. In all 
these movements he sent back suggestions daily, almost 
hourly, to Grant, every one of which Grant accepted. I 
sometimes think that without Sheridan Grant's closing 
triumph might have been less complete ; for it was Sheridan 
who by his rapid marches and incessant blows secured the 
enveloping, and thus the surrender, of Lee. This can be 
said without detracting one leaf from the laurels of Grant. 
The most skillful workman requires tools of finest edge ; the 
greatest commander cannot win without troops and subordi- 
nates of mettle like his own. 

After this Grant fairly loved Sheridan. The affection was 
founded on admiration; the intimacy grew out of achieve- 
ment. It was the strange, rich fruit of battle, watered by 
blood and ripened by patriotism into a close and tender 
regard. I was an inmate of Grant's house when the chief 
was believed to be dying, and Sheridan wrote me a letter to 
present to the family when the dreaded hour should come. 
He added a line w r hich I venture to repeat because it shows 
the peculiar and delicate nature of the feeling between the 
soldiers: "It is unnecessary for me," said Sheridan, -'to use 
words to express my attachment to General Grant and his 
family. I have not gone to see him, as I could only bring 
additional distress to them, and I want to remember him as 
I knew him in good health." 

Grant always regarded the French attempt to establish 
an empire in Mexico as a part of the effort to subvert our 
own Republic. At the close of the war, on the very day of 
the grand review at Washington, he dispatched Sheridan 
with secret orders to the Rio Grande, to watch the frontier. 



^^-^C/Z^/ffJ 






s~, 



/?. 



~C£ *■■ -r~ A "* ^*i <=£* : - 



/ _. T , +■ «*■ **■ *~ * 



y " ^/ t*u*u*m±+S~, 






GRANT AND SHERIDAN. 



101 



He hoped to be able to bring the Administration up to his own 
views, if the Emperor delayed ; and Sheridan was directed 
to be ready for any emergency. He performed his part, and 
when the question was settled, and the French were with- 
drawn, Grant left him in command at New Orleans. 

Here he was found when the President's policy was 
rejected by the people ; and when the measures which John- 
son opposed became law, Sheridan, like Grant, set himself 
to obeying the law. Johnson, of course, was provoked, but 
Grant promptly indorsed his subordinate. In July, 1866, a 
violent riot occurred at New Orleans in which forty Union 
men were killed and one hundred and fifty wounded by 
Southerners. Sheridan's course at the time was the subject 
of a warm contention between Grant and the President, the 
latter as usual siding with the men who had once opposed 
the Union. During the discussion Grant wrote to Sheridan 
in these words : 

" I am just in receipt of copy of your letter to the President in 
reply to his dispatch of the 4th inst. It is certainly a very clear 
statement of the cause and effect of the riot, and in my judgment 
it is due to the public, to you, and even to the President, that it 
should be published. I have requested from the President the 
publication of all your dispatches on the subject of the New 
Orleans riot, on the ground that the partial publications which 
have appeared put you in the position of taking a partisan view of 
the matter, whereas the dispatches given in full show that you 
never dreamed of extenuating faults no matter which side they 
occurred on. One thing you may rely on, the purity of your motives 
will never be impeached by the public, no matter what capital the 
politicians may attempt to make out of garbled or partial publica- 
tions of what you say or write officially. Persevere exactly in the 
course your own good judgment dictates. It has never yet led 
you astray as a military commander, nor in the administration of 
the affairs of your military division." 

On the 27th of March, 1867, in the exercise of the 



,XT IN PEACE. 
102 

him by the Reconstruction Acts, 

office the Attorney-General of the 

. the Mayor of New Orleans, and the 

act Court of the same city. Two 

L nt wrote to him: "I have just seen your 

the thing, and merits the universal 

le at least. I have no doubt 

I with like approval from the recon- 

'.rant's]. It will at least prove 

em and to the quiet and prosperity of 

St .to of Louisiana. I only write 

lenow that I at least approve what you have 

me the President seems to have determined 
Sheridan, for the power had been left in 
5S, and in May Grant wrote to the 
nander: 

-I • but that the reports of your contemplated 

I from a high source. It has unquestiona- 

1 in contemplation, but it cannot hurt, though it may em- 

loyal man in the country admires your course 

they did your military career. You have to the 

the Secretary, the loyal people 

Removal cannot hurt you if it does take 

.:!. You have carried out the acts 

be difficult to get a general officer who 

»miss all embarrassments on account of 

in act will not reflect on you.'' 

by his immediate superior, Sheridan 

I . the spirit and the letter of the 

in his encouragement. On the 3d 

the Governor of Louisiana, that 

It" an impediment to the faithful 

■ 1 action Act"; and Grant imme- 

.11 : 



GRANT AND SHERIDAN. 103 

" I have no doubt myself that the removal of Governor Wells 
■will do great good to your command, if you are sustained, but 
great harm if you are not sustained. I shall do all I can to sustain 
you in it. You have acted boldly and with good judgment, and 
will be sustained by public opinion as well as your own conscience, 
no matter what the result. It has been my intention to order you 
to Washington as soon as your command is in a condition that 
you can leave it for a few weeks, to give you an opportunity of 
taking a run up North. A little relaxation for a few weeks will do 
you good, bodily, and give you an opportunity of coming in con- 
tact with people who supported the Government during the rebellion 
[Grant's italics]." 

The axe had been hanging long, but it finally fell. On 
the 1st of August the President announced to Grant that he 
had made up his mind to suspend Stanton and remove Sheri- 
dan. I have already quoted the language in which Grant 
protested against this intention in regard to Stanton. In 
the same letter he added these words referring to Sheridan : 

" On the subject of the removal of the very able commander 
of the Fifth Military District, let me ask you to consider the effect 
it would have upon the public. He is unusually and deservedly 
beloved by the people who sustained the Government through its 
trials, and feared by those who would still be enemies of the Gov- 
ernment. It fell to the lot of but few men to do as much against 
an armed enemy as General Sheridan did during the rebellion, and 
it is within the scope of the ability of but few in this or any other 
country to do what he has. His civil administration has given 
equal satisfaction. He has had difficulties to contend with which 
no other District Commander has encountered. Almost if not 
quite from the day he was appointed District Commander to the 
present time, our press has given out that he was to be removed ; 
that the Administration was dissatisfied with him, etc. This has 
emboldened the opponents- to the laws of Congress within his 
command to oppose him in every way in their power, and has 
rendered necessary measures which otherwise might never have 
been necessary." 



. I\ PEACE. 

.little idea that his protest would 
. the President, and directed one of 
as follow 

to write to you to tell you that Presi- 

mind to remove you and also the 

at for General Grant yesterday and told 

.ill proper for him to say against such 

ime back he put his views in writing and 

ad you a copy of his letter. The 

i you to go on your course exactly as if 

been sent to you, and without fear of 
iu pursue the same line of duty 
thus far in the service you will receive the 
1 [eadquarters." 

August the order was positively issued, 
■ sted urgently and eloquently in a letter 
jiven to the world. General Thomas 
relieve Sheridan, but that officer was un- 
urae the position, and w r as excused on the 
Ith. Sheridan, however, was directed to 
/.and at once to the officer next in rank in 
i not to be allowed to remain under any 

His ( rders were to proceed to Fort Leaven- 
Hancock, who was in turn to supersede 

.illS. 

I mber the faithful chief wrote again to 

•urn over your command to the 

3 soon as you relieve General 

shington, I did not mean to hasten 

leant it as an order for you to come 

you. When you ' aven- 

• your convenience, only do 

ins to Washington. 



GRANT AND SHERIDAN. IO5 

" I feel that your relief from command of the Fifth District is 
a heavy blow to Reconstruction. Not that Griffin will not carry 
out the law faithfully, and Hancock too when he gets there, but 
that the act of Government will be interrupted as an effort to de- 
feat the law and will encourage opposition to it. So again in the 
Second District, I do not know what to make of present move- 
ments in this capital, but they fill me with alarm. In your own 
personal welfare you will not suffer from these changes, except as 
one of the thirty-five millions of inhabitants of this republic, but 
may be the gainer as far as personal comfort is concerned. I felt 
it my duty, however, to do all I could to keep you where you were 
until the laws you were executing so faithfully were carried 
through, and your district restored to the Union. All I can say 
now is that I have sustained your course, publicly, privately, and 
officially, not from personal feeling or partiality, but because you 
were right. You are entitled to a little rest, and I know such a 
welcome awaits you as will convince you that republics are not 
always ungrateful." 

Thus Sheridan also was taken from the duty in which he 
had hitherto supported Grant. Deprived now of his two 
coadjutors, without either Stanton as a friendly superior or 
Sheridan as a loyal subordinate, Grant was left to bear the 
whole brunt of the battle with the President, which had 
been committed to him by Congress and the people whom 
Congress represented. The prospect was arduous, and he 
felt the loss of his faithful allies ; but he girded himself for 
the task. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

GRANT IN THE CABINET. 

I when Grant entered the Cabinet, and he 

I there only until January. The President of 
i the views of his new Secretary of War. 
before him against the suspension of 
I the knowledge of all Grant's previous acts 
lardly have doubted what his subsequent course 
But it he had any doubts they were soon dis- 
led. Within five days after Grant became Secretary, 
i removed, and in his new capacity Grant 
i iphatically than ever. He was overruled, 
perform what he believed 
whole term of service in the Cabinet was 
I differences with the President. 
storm of indignation that burst from 
t the North on the supersedure of 
ridan extended in some degree to Grant, 
to 1 . Stanton's place. Some of his 
d his course, while politi- 
that it indicated sympathy with 
G tit n mained silent under the unmerit- 
tinued, as far as he was able, to carry 
who thought he was opposing them, 
ts to induce the President to retain 
mmanders at their posts, but Sickles 
ope by Meade; both for 
hich had brought about the 
(106) 



GRANT IN THE CABINET. 107 

removal of Stanton and Sheridan. The two officers who 
were substituted were, however, thoroughly imbued with 
the feeling of their predecessors and of Grant. They all 
believed the law paramount to the will of any one man, and 
proceeded to execute the law in the spirit in which it had 
been conceived. 

Hancock, who followed Sheridan, was the only one who 
took a different stand. He did all in his power to thwart 
the Congressional policy and to support the President. He 
issued proclamations in direct contradiction of the spirit of 
the Reconstruction measures, revoked important orders of 
Sheridan that had been approved by Grant, and defied the 
popular feeling of the North. Grant repeatedly overruled 
him, though the President made every effort to uphold him ; 
but the laws had by this time been so contrived that there 
was no possibility of frustrating their intention if Grant 
exercised his full authority ; and this he did not hesitate to 
do. Hancock in a few months asked to be relieved, and his 
request was granted. 

The struggle with the President, however, continued. 
Johnson lost no opportunity to attempt to control events 
and maintain his own authority in opposition to that of 
Congress, and Grant steadily pursued his task of carrying 
out the Reconstruction measures as the recognized law of 
the land. 

All this while as Secretary of War, Grant was obliged to 
attend Cabinet meetings and was frequently present at dis- 
cussions and arrangements the purpose and tenor of which 
he entirely disapproved. This finally became so disagree- 
able to him that he requested the President to excuse him 
from the purely political duties of a member of the Govern- 
ment. He represented that as an officer of the army he 
might be called upon to serve under different Presidents 
holding opposite views, and although he was always ready to 
obey legal orders or to execute legal measures, it was not 



IQ g \.\T IN PEACE. 

ist in the arrangement of 

He was hardly, he said, a civil Minister at 

nfirmed by the Senate as Secretary 

holding office until the re-assembling 

President to nominate a permanent 

sua! policy, paid no attention to these 

tinued in Grant's presence the discussions 

( i was averse, so that Grant might seem to 

n what he heard. Finally Grant determined not to be 

.mined in this way against his will. He 

3 to which he was summoned, submitted 

quired the concurrence of his colleagues 

or t: : the President, but retired as soon as the 

transacted j thus plainly indicating to 

m that he was not in harmony with its 

i would not be identified with its schemes. 

I i state here that when I relate what 

( ibinet meetings or make other declarations 

I which could only have been learned from 

lent is in every case made on his author- 

n what he told me at the time. Not long 

nces I wrote out an account of them, 

's relations with Johnson, which he read 

. i ! which he knew was to be given to the 

s is the foundation and proof of much contained 

' volume. 

1 ri nit was often obliged to dissent in terms 

■\ in Cabinet, he did so as seldom and 

jsible. He was a man who never 

Mid it .sometimes required downright ill- 

him. lie w.is therefore courteous to 

e had not sought, and to the associates with 

jucceeded as vet in preserving 

with them all. The President invited him 



GRANT IN THE CABINET. IO g 

and Grant of course accepted the invitations; his colleagues 
visited him and he returned the courtesy ; all of which 
produced the impression upon the country which Grant be- 
lieved that Johnson desired. It gave the appearance of po- 
litical support of the President's unpopular course ; it made 
many Republicans hostile and provoked the criticism that 
Grant was a trimmer. Yet all the while he was doing as 
much as any Republican in the land to further the views 
that Republicans entertained. 

He performed meanwhile all the routine duties of his 
place with care, and was an excellent Secretary of War. He 
kept the duties of his two positions distinct, and as Secre- 
tary he sometimes gave orders to the General of the Army. 
He visited both offices daily, spending a few hours in the 
morning at the War Department, and later in the day re- 
paired to his old headquarters. His staff did not accompany 
him to the War Department ; he was determined to hold the 
post only ad interim, and to give no appearance of perman- 
ency to his enforced acceptance of its functions. The letters 
to the General of the Army went to one place, and those of 
the Secretary of War to another. I opened all of the former, 
as usual, and submitted those that required his attention, as 
any other officer would have done, in the room of the Sec- 
retary of War. 

The two buildings were on opposite sides of the same 
street, and when I went across to see him T always thought 
he received me with more formality than at other times ; but 
on his return to his headquarters later in the day he threw 
aside the manner of a Cabinet Minister and was a soldier 
with his staff, as intimate and unrestrained as ever. I think 
he always gave me my title when I went to the Secretary of 
War ; but on other occasions he rarely called me anything 
but " Badeau." I recollect urging several points upon him 
at this time which he refused to concede because — so it 
seemed to me — they belonged peculiarly to the province of 



no GRANT IN PEACE. 

! Secretary Stanton would have refused. 

I lisap] ointed, and thought to myself had 

General of the Army this would not have 

I received a letter for him from Edwin Booth, 

r the name of his aged mother that the remains 

might be privately restored to the family. 

I the sufferings of that family, " the 

lid, "on earth," and pleaded that after 

re than two full years there could be no ob- 

grounds to the concession. Booth had 

intimate friend for many years. I could vouch 

ty, and knew how shocked and lacerated he had 

' that shocked the nation. The letter was 

tful 'crate though manly in tone, and I urged 

le to the request. But he was immutable. 

time had not yet come; and the sternness was 

il in him that I thought it proceeded from the feel- 

I; that he meant to do what he thought 

mid have dune; and doubtless Stanton would have 

I ngress re-assembled, and Johnson was 
Office Act to report to the Senate 
ys his reasons for the suspension of Stan- 
md on the 13th of January the Senate re- 
were insufficient. By the language of 
• once re-instated Stanton. Grant had 
ident two days before that he should in- 
.• the office if such a decision was made. The 
that the law was unconstitutional and 
in the place; but Grant replied that he 
the penalties of fine and imprison- 
the law. Johnson offered to pay the fine 
c imprisonment; but of course this was pre- 
isted in his determination. This 



GRANT IN THE CABINET. m 

was on the nth of January. The President still would not 
accept the refusal, and when Grant left the room Johnson 
said he should expect to see the General again. 

The next day was Sunday, and as it was evident that the 
Senate would not concur in the suspension of Stanton Grant 
was greatly concerned. He was not anxious that Stanton 
should be restored, for he felt that the Minister's power for 
good was now ended, and that the workings of the Government 
would be needlessly thwarted by the intrusion of an unwel- 
come Cabinet officer upon the Head of the State. Stanton 
could hardly be expected to share this feeling ; his personal 
triumph was concerned in his restoration ; but this to Grant 
was a less important consideration than the public interest. 
General Sherman was in Washington at this time, and at 
Grant's request he went on Monday to the President to urge 
him to nominate a Secretary who would be acceptable to the 
Senate, so that Stanton might be legally relieved. Grant 
proposed General Jacob D. Cox, a former Governor of Ohio, 
who was a Republican, but not so outspoken in his hostility 
to the President as many of his party. Grant thought that 
this selection might bridge over the difficulty. He urged 
this task on Sherman because the President had always 
seemed to suppose that Sherman was more in accord with 
his views than Grant. The Hon. Reverdy Johnson also saw 
the President and recommended the same course ; but the 
President did not accept the suggestion. Thus Saturday, 
Sunday, Monday passed. 

• It was late on Monday, the 13th of January, when the 
Senate resolved that the causes for removing Stanton were 
insufficient. Grant attended a levee of the President that 
night, but had only formal and unofficial conversation with 
him. Early on the 14th Grant went to the office of the Secre- 
tary of War, locked and bolted the door on the outside, and 
handed the key to the Adjutant-General of the Army. "I 
am to be found at my office," he said, " at army headquar- 



ANT IN 1'EACE. 

nt a formal letter to the Presi- 

that he had been notified of the action of 

e terms of the law his own func- 

from the moment of the 

I with the President on the nth he 

n all the necessary notification to 

I v. - with him, with other staff offi- 

:t his headquarters with this intention, and 

•urn, when he stated what had occurred. He 

he had told Mr. Johnson that on no account 

nt to hold the office after the Senate should 

led and argued, and would not be 

t's decision. Johnson indeed was always 

Ision, while Grant was usually instan- 

\\ hen the crisis came. Johnson could even 

mine what to do; he did not positively decline 

C : he delayed on Sunday, and on Monday; 

I, and then Grant did exactly what he 

He gave up the office, and Stanton 

not intended to allow. He hoped to 
1 . the post so as to test the constitu- 

ent Grant's prompt obedience to the 
Ian. Still Johnson refused to recog- 
; and at once summoned him to a 
1 the message and was ad- 

try." He instantly disclaimed the 
' ' I he had notified the President that he 
• in that capacity; but Johnson main- 
d to remain in office until 
!. The result was a direct 
Grant and the President. Grant 
-ion of Johnson and Johnson in- 
binet Ministers to declare that he 



GRANT IN THE CABINET. 



113 



spoke the truth, which implied of course that Grant was 
false. Grant never spoke to either of these men again, 
nor allowed his family to visit theirs. On the day when 
he was inaugurated as President he refused to sit in the 
same carriage with his predecessor, and during his Admin- 
istration he manifested the same feeling toward Johnson's 
Secretary of the Treasury. McCulloch had returned to his 
old business of banking and was established in London as a 
partner in the house of Jay Cooke, McCulloch & Co. This 
firm was selected by Robeson, the Secretary of the Navy, to 
receive the deposits made in London for the payment of 
naval officers on foreign service. It was a purely American 
firm and its leading partners were intimate personal friends 
of Grant. If the McCulloch difficulty was recollected at all 
by the Secretary it was not supposed that it could affect 
this appointment. Grant, however, retained his indignant 
feeling, and only assented to the appointment after long 
hesitation, and then on account of the public considerations 
involved, and his confidence in the judgment of Robeson. 
He spoke to me of this matter years afterward and told how 
unwillingly he had acquiesced. He always admitted, how- 
ever, that though the London house was involved by the 
failure of Jay Cooke & Co. in this country, and had finally 
suspended payment, the business was so managed that the 
Government suffered no loss. 

The heated discussion between Johnson and Grant is 
historical. Letters of an extraordinary character were ex- 
changed between them, and were immediately made public. 
All the long series of difficulties and exasperations culmin- 
ated now, and when Grant found his personal honor 
impugned he became as angry as any Hotspur in the land. 
He had at first been willing to admit that the President 
might have persuaded himself that what he so much desired 
had happened, and that in another interview he could induce 
Grant to take the step that he asked. Johnson had con- 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

,1 himself that he could control Grant, and he 
.en up the hope even now; while Grant, 
ubordination, his undemonstrative demeanor, 
h, having said what he intended, saw 
nfirm, or repeat, or amplify ; and when Johnson 
. ,. 2 him again, Grant did not refuse. But nei- 
.t. If Congress had not acted so promptly 
f it is probable that he would have visited Johnson 
profoundly anxious to tranquilize the situa- 
ted, and Grant with his usual decision 
Then when Johnson charged him with positive 
.. he never forgave him. 
• er which terminated their intercourse was Grant's. 
d written another with less acrimony than the second, 
mitted the possibility of the President's miscon- 
R wlins, who was a politician by nature, and 
mg foreseen the result of all the political Com- 
tek that at last the time had come. He had enor- 
, and at intervals enormous influence with Grant. 
the letter that Grant had written and said: "This 
not enough;" and then prepared the draft 
of th ' int - directly contradicting and defying 

The language was afterward considered and 
■ • . bill the sentiment remained, and this 

Rawlins. This made the rupture with 
rial, and reconciliation impossible. It was a 
ius, for it also made any other candi- 
nt impossible for the Republicans. Of course 
aid probably would have been President had 
lence never occurred ; but the letter made his 
nd election certain; and it was this phase of 
that produced the result. 

said by any one present of the 

or results of the situation. Rawlins 

he was expressing Grant's own sentiment, and 



GRANT IN THE CABINET. 



115 



Grant instantly perceived this fact — and acquiesced. I 
never in my intercourse with Grant saw another instance 
where another exercised so direct and palpable and import- 
ant an influence with him. It was instantaneous and abso- 
lute. It made him a Republican. Rawlins knew this. I 
could see it in his face and detect it in his tone. If Grant 
recognized it, he never admitted it to any one. But I 
believe that at the moment he felt only the assault upon 
his honor. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CRANT AND SHERMAN. 

THE intimacy between Grant and Sherman began at the 
Shiloh. They had been together at West 
. but in different classes, for Sherman was two years 
r ; and they never met afterward either in the army 
I life till Grant went to Pittsburg Landing. The 
•.here in which they were so nearly worsted, 
ich the splendid gallantry of the one so admirably 
I the stubborn pluck of the other; the odium 

Grant afterward, which Sherman shared for 

lisclosed qualities in each to the other that 
then not recognized; and the companionship 
■onsibility, and detraction made them in- 
■in-arms. 

•his when Grant touched the lowest point in 
en the press declared, and the country believed, 
■ hud precipitated defeat ; when his superiors 

1 disparaged him more profoundly even than 
the country — the future General-in-Chief for 

nt. He asked to be relieved from duty 

to the rear. The order was given and the 

were made; camp chests and papers were 

I ' Sherman discovered the intention and urged so 

M i tild remain that his advice and influ- 

I: was thus he who kept Grant with that 

lestined to lead to so many victories. 

[ is well known that Sherman disapproved 

(116) 



GRANT AND SHERMAN. u y 

the crowning strategy, but did his best to falsify the disap- 
proval ; and when success finally came and others attributed 
to him the conception of the campaign, he told the story of 
his own opposition which Grant had scrupulously concealed. 
The very letter that Sherman had written, urging a different 
movement, Grant had destroyed, but Sherman sent me a 
copy years afterward for my History of Grant's Campaigns, 
to testify that Grant was entitled to the credit of the victory. 
But for him the truth could never have been proved. 

When Grant was made General-in-Chief he sent me with 
an extraordinary private letter to Sherman in which he de- 
clared : " How far your execution of whatever has been given 
you to do entitles you to the reward I am receiving you 
cannot know as well as I." But Sherman was not to be 
outdone in magnanimity, and replied: "You do yourself 
injustice and us too much honor in assigning us too large a 
share in the merits which have led to your high advance- 
ment." Seldom in history have men holding such positions 
held to each other such words. 

The words, however, were not meant for the world. 
They were the interchange of intimate sentiment between 
closest friends. But in November, 1864, after Sherman had 
started on his memorable march, and disappeared for a 
month from the country's eager gaze, I accompanied Grant 
on a visit to the North. He went to Washington, Philadel- 
phia, and New York. Everywhere the most important 
people of the country crowded around him, all eager for his 
judgment of Sherman. Again and again I heard him declare 
to these makers of opinion that Sherman was the greatest 
soldier living. I remonstrated with him in private, but he 
repeated — that was his opinion. 

Indeed, I always felt for years that Grant did not do him- 
self justice in his own thought. He was so unconscious and 
so uncritical of himself that he could not properly compare 
himself with others. The peculiar character of Sherman's 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

him quite as absolutely as it did anybody 
made him feel that Sherman had at least 
the first place as he. He almost seemed 
sherman had not attained it. 

reatness. He began his career 

f his own abilities, but as he grew 

, he found that he could do at least as 

e, and he had no fear after I knew him to 

1 1 ike any task. But although he 

;hadowed, for a long while when he looked at 

vements he was dazzled; and when he re- 

ttainments and peculiar gifts, which were 

' e did not himself possess, he felt his own 

Sherman was eloquent, animated, magnetic, 

in military history, ready to quote the examples of 

• all he was brilliant; Grant knew 

none of these; and though never lack- 

fidence he was often impressed by Sherman's 

lities till he forgot the weight due to his own 

essential merits. 

Sherman however was never blind. He appre- 

t's remarkable poise, and that absolute con- 

which he likened to the faith which a 

Saviour. He knew that Grant's very 

lion was sometimes an advantage in battle; 

: " When 1 go into battle I am always think- 

enemy will do, but Grant don't care a 

'. on the calm strength of his friend, and 

bination that served themselves and the 

I tey had been counterparts. 

triumphant at Savannah, and then the 

r a while that he ought to supplant 

■ had lain for nearly a year in front of 

not a .single undisputed victory; while 

■■ ly to Atlanta and afterward marched 



GRANT AND SHERMAN. x l g 

across the Confederacy to the sea. A bill was accordingly 
meditated to make Sherman Licutenant-General and eligible 
to command the Army. But Sherman wrote to his brother 
in the Senate to prevent the plan, while to Grant he said : 
" I would rather have you in command than any one else. I 
should emphatically decline any command calculated to bring 
us into rivalry." To this Grant answered simply: "If you 
should be put in command and I put subordinate, it would 
not change our relations in the least. I would make the 
same exertions to support you that you have ever done to 
support me, and I would do all in my power to make our 
cause win." He so little thought he was saying anything 
remarkable when he wrote these lines that he was about 
sending the letter without retaining a copy. By good fortune 
he showed it to me, and I took a copy before it was for- 
warded, though he seemed to think this unnecessary. It was 
unofficial, he said. 

At this period in his career Grant was always apparently 
unconscious when he did great things, either in an intel- 
lectual or a moral way. He seemed by nature utterly unob- 
servant of the workings of his own mind and almost of the 
peculiarities of his own character. He never appeared to 
consider, much less to study, his own thoughts or emotions, 
unless something was done or said to call his attention to 
them — perhaps to disclose them to himself. One or two of 
his intimates were even able occasionally to utter or embody 
his feelings for him, so that he at once recognized and 
accepted them. Rawlins possessed this art, and to those 
who did not know all or see far, he sometimes seemed to put 
ideas into Grant. But he got them all first from Grant ; and 
having a greater facility of expression could reveal them to 
him, or even impress them on their author. He never, how- 
ever, claimed to originate them ; nor did he ever discuss this 
singular power ; he only exerted it; perhaps unconsciously, 
as Grant himself exerted his own faculties. The mirror in 



\\T IN PEACE. 

tures arc reflected may sometimes make 
[ what manner of man he is. But the mir- 
create the featur 

ireer, after he had seen much of the 

through so marvelous an experience 

med to me to become more conscious. 

I who grew, not he; that I got to 

1 at last could see what had existed all along 

kept so close about his intimacy. He was 

( : ue, that friendship, or even affection, should 

: nevertheless, the study of his character and 

vealed qualities and peculiarities 

:knowledged by his acts, if not his words; and he 

t, became not only willing, but desirous, for me 

• the v. irki rigs of his spirit which few were per- 

eive. If I tell any of his secrets now, when he 

his silent shade will not reproach me, for it 

• him loved and honored by others as he was by me. 

Sherman. When the terrible and unjust 

the Government and half the country in 

iion forgot all that Sherman had done, 

1 him a traitor, Grant was as deeply wounded 

erraan. I met him with this news in North 

■ turning from Sherman's headquarters 

1 capitulation of Johnston. He knew, for he 

;ut the President and Stanton thought 

disapproved those terms as fully 

they; but he had not dreamed that these 

de known. When he read Stanton's 

lished t<> the world, his face flamed with indig- 

nched, and he exclaimed: "It is in- 

' ' he repeated the word — "After four 

Sherman has done — that he should 

< >n his return to Washington he was 

his indignation, and when Sherman 



GRANT AND SHERMAN. I2 i 

arrived there with his army, to share in the Great Review, the 
tone of public feeling was already changed, partly, no doubt, 
by Grant's outspoken protestations for his friend. 

But now came another serious trouble. Sherman was not 
appeased. He could not forgive the insult offered him before 
the country ; and the situation of public affairs was still too 
critical for men like Stanton and Sherman to be at odds with- 
out creating anxiety. Sherman's army shared his feeling, and 
it was not thought wise to encamp it too near Washington. 
Grant did his best to bring the great patriots together, and Stan- 
ton was not averse; he doubtless felt that he had been unjust. 
But Sherman held off. Grant advised him, sympathized with 
him, and sought to soothe him. But Sherman refused in public, 
at the head of his army, and in the presence of the President 
and all the great functionaries of the nation, the hand that 
Stanton offered him. 

He wrote, besides, two letters to Grant, one from Rich- 
mond and the other in Washington, which Grant gave me to 
keep, directing me to seal them up, and never show them to 
any human being without his leave. Years afterward, with 
Grant's sanction, I w r rote to Sherman for permission to use 
them in my history. This he gave, adding fresh comments 
full of pathos and the softening influence of time. Grant had 
never answered the letters, but kept the secret, so that the 
contents remained unknown till one of the great actors had 
passed away and the other had forgiven the affront. Then 
Sherman wrote to me : "I fully concede to you the right to 
use anything I ever wrote, private or public, to give the world 
a picture of the feelings, even passions, of the time. 
To-day I might act with more silence, with more caution, with 
more prudence, because I am twelve years older. But these 
things did occur, these feelings were felt, and inspired acts 
which go to make up history ; and the question now is not, 
Was I right or wrong ? but, Did it happen ? and is the record 
worth anything as an historic example?" 



ANT IN PEACE. 

the two men who had stood side by side since 
t and evil report, in disaster and trial 
, were to be tested on another field. 
eived the idea of making them rivals, 
friends against each other in politics. When 
it he could not win Grant to his purposes, he be- 
t Sherman's reputation and popularity might 
almost as well. Sherman had lived out of the 
n Congress and the President, and could not 
Grant knew of Johnson's cunning and designs, 
'at be counted on, as Grant's had been. 
erman had seemed to entertain notions in poli- 
cy dissimilar to those with which Johnson him- 
he might be inclined to act with the loyal 
had followed Johnson in his aberrations. Above 
;ht be tempted by the chance to supplant his only 
ilitary position or possibly fame. So the scheme 
p Sherman and use him to further Johnson s 
sm to Grant. 

vl sherman to general radeau. 

Headquarters Army of the United States,^ 

Washington, I). C, June 27, 1877. ) 

Your Ktter of June 13th catches me in the 

bsence of three months, and leaves me 

iy that the marked honors paid General Grant by all 

ign down to the masses of England, touch 

•Id comrades, with great force. All the 

le of politics chronicle his movements and 

We all know that he and Mrs. Grant 

n last evening at 5 p. m., and were the guests 

Majesty. Victoria, at Windsor Gastle. I 

• ivor, not as mere compliments to the Gen- 

ry, hut as a foreshadowing of the judgment of 

V v. that he is untrammeled by 

I artisans, all men look upon him as the 



GRANT AND SHERMAN. 



123 



General Grant, who had the courage, with Lee at his front and 
Washington at his rear, to undertake to command the Army of the 
Potomac in 1S64, to guide, direct, and push it through sunshine 
and storm, through praise and denunciation, steadily, surely, and 
finally to victory and peace ; and afterwards, though unused to the 
ways and machinery of civil government, to risk all in undertaking 
to maintain that peace by the Constitution and civil forms of govern- 
ment. There have been plenty of people trying to sow dissensions 
between us personally, and I feel my conscience clear that, though 
sometimes differing on minor points, I never doubted his patriot- 
ism, firmness, and personal friendship. If the General and family 
be still with you, give them the assurance of my best love, and 
believe me, Most truly, your friend, 

W. T. Sherman. 



CHAPTER XV. 

GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. 

J had been as violent as Stanton in his censure 

tierman's terms in North Carolina. General Grant 
the time that the President called Sherman a 
r in the presence of the Cabinet, and that he authorized 
. of the comments of Stanton which called 
t soldier the denunciations of the country 
But when it became desirable to 
! ■ Sherman Johnson could assume a different tone. 

1 • inducement of flatter}*, confidence, and 

incement, and offered him in turn the command 
the brevet of General, and the position of Sec- 
i that he might either cope with, supplant, 
int. Put Sherman was proof against all his 
'. 

' • mpt to pit the great comrades against 

matter of the mission to Mexico. I 

y, but some points belong to my 

In t> tober, 1S66, the President ordered 

Sh -man who was at St. Louis, but he did 

-in-Chief of the purpose of the order. 

r, Grant suspected, and wrote to Sherman to 

There he told his friend of the 

to send himself out of the coun- 

in in his in the interim. Sher- 

the President and protested against 

sented the determination of ("-rant not 

(1-4) 



GRANT, SHERMAN", AND JOHNSON. I2 5 

to leave the country, the needlessness of sending him, and 
the danger of insisting. He even offered himself to go to 
Mexico, and in the end he was substituted for Grant. 
Beyond all doubt it was the earnestness of his urging, the 
cogency of his suggestions, and above all the discovery of 
his loyalty to Grant that changed the purpose of the Presi- 
dent. Sherman, however, like Grant at the outset, was 
completely subordinate in his interviews with the President 
and strove to express no opinions offensive to his superior. 

A year after these events the time came for Johnson to 
report his reasons for the suspension of Stanton. Sherman 
was then on duty at Washington as president of a board to 
revise the regulations of the army. His relations with Grant 
were so intimate that they discussed in advance the conduct 
of Grant in case the Senate should disapprove the action of 
the President. On the nth of January, two days before the 
Senate decided, Grant told Sherman that he would not retain 
the office of Secretary of War after the disapproval of the 
Senate, and Sherman urged him to make known this inten- 
tion promptly to the President. It was partly because of 
this urgency of Sherman that Grant went the same day to 
Johnson to announce his determination. It was also Sher- 
man who first suggested the name of Governor Cox as a 
substitute, when Grant should give up the office, and Grant 
urged Sherman to repeat the suggestion to the President. 
They were thus in complete accord. Neither, at this junc- 
ture, deemed it proper that Stanton should return to his office. 
But Stanton resumed his place, and his first act was to 
send a message to Grant that the Secretary of War desired 
to see him. This required Grant to leave his own office on 
the opposite side of the street to wait on his superior. It was, 
to say the least, an offensive method of announcing that Stan- 
ton was in his seat, especially to the man who had treated 
him with so much delicacy a few months before, when 
their positions had been reversed. Then Grant had gone 



\XT IN PEACE. 

• Id him in advance what he meant 

:-.t a formal and highly complimentary 

he entered upon his functions. Grant now 

the behavior of Stanton, and said so to 

his own confidential officers. 

I irant and Sherman went together to the 

L There 1 ppeared in the journal which 

n's mouthpiece accusations of Grant's want 

! he was loath to enter the Executive presence, 

r foot all personal considerations. The 

Stanton was discussed, and it was suggested 

hould advise him to resign. The President 

btanton's orders to Grant were not valid 

retary held office against the will of the Head 

I rant replied that if the President wished 

■ mton, he should give a written order to 

This order Johnson did not give. He wished 

the responsibility of disobeying, but was him- 

to take the responsibility of directing the 

and Sherman now held frequent conferences, 

. step without the concurrence of the other. 

in, like Grant, subordinated all personal feeling at this 

) the public interests. He forgot any remains of 

'ained toward Stanton, and offered 

Grant to discuss the situation; but for 

the interview did not occur. Grant, however, 

ton, intending to recommend him to resign, but 

'.hat the advice would be useless, and coun- 

r it. 

o-ntroversy between Grant and the Presi- 

culmination. Twice Grant received 

Stanton requiring immediate action, 

mmunications fr Treasury which 

• r . ■ i War; and yet the Presi- 



GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. i 2 J 

dent had verbally instructed him to disregard Stanton's au- 
thority. On the 24th of January Grant formally requested 
that the President would put into writing these verbal 
directions. This was not done, and Grant was placed in 
a very embarrassing position. It was the old device — to 
make some one else do the unauthorized work and take the 
responsibility, by which Johnson was to profit without burn- 
ing his fingers. At the same time the imputations of bad 
faith were continued against Grant. Finally, on the 28th 
of January, Grant renewed his request for written instruc- 
tions to disobey Stanton, and in the same letter he cate- 
gorically denied the assertion of any promise on his part to 
remain in office after the Senate re-instated Stanton. 

This brought matters to a head. Within two days Sher- 
man was offered the position of Secretary of War. As soon as 
it became certain that Grant could not and would not be used, 
the crafty politician turned to the next in command. On the 
30th of January Sherman had a long interview with Johnson, 
in which the President proposed either to oust Stanton by 
force, or to remove him legally by submitting Sherman's 
name to the Senate as Secretary of War. But to both these 
measures Sherman was averse. On the 31st he wrote a let- 
ter to the President, full of wisdom, patriotism, and eloquence, 
a copy of which he gave to Grant. In this he said : " To 
bring me to Washington would put three heads to the army 
— yourself, General Grant, and myself; and we would be 
more than human if we were not to differ. In my judgment 
it would ruin the army, and would be fatal to one, or two, of 
us." "With my consent," he said emphatically, "Washing- 
ton, never." 

The next day the Board of Officers, of which Sherman 
was president, concluded its labors, and he set out immedi- 
ately for St. Louis, to avoid, if possible, being caught in the 
political storm. Johnson cajoled him, tempted him, and flat- 
tered him, but in vain. Repeatedly the President declared 



\XT IX PEACE. 

Sherman in Washington, but Sherman as 
main; and Johnson did not order him to 

January, the day after offering Sherman 

retary of War, Johnson sent a letter to 

I lating in detail and ratifying all the charges 

rto been only anonymously made. On the 

rrant replied, denying every one of John- 

Lnd charging the President outright with an 

his character before the country. Johnson 

in order for Sherman to return to Washing- 

isual vacillation, in a day or two rescinded it. 

I bruary, however, the order was renewed, 

was dire< te 1 to assume command of a new mil- 

the occasion, with headquarters at 

< it notified him of this by telegraph, and 

:d: "Were I prepared, I should resign on the 

do foresight to predict such must be the 

suit in the end." 

:it to the Senate the nomination of Sher- 
the brevet of General, which would enable the Presi- 
e him in command of the army instead of Grant, 
• . " legraphed to his brother in the Sen- 
ile confirmation. The same day he wrote a 
i tiie 1 'resident, which he forwarded through 
it himself he said: "I never felt so troubled 
fe. Were it an order to go to Sitka, to the devil, to 
ir Indians, I thi lk you would not hear a 
. . . My first thoughts were of resigna- 
■ made up my mind to ask Dodge for 
Pacific Railroad, . . . and then again 
■ n through my memory, but hard times and 
have brought me back. ... If it were 
u would accept the nomination of Presi- 
' y and kill the intervening time and 



GRANT, SHE UMAX, AND JOHNSON. 12 g 

then judge of the chances, but I do not want you to reveal 
your plans to me till you choose to do so." 

It was hard to drive Sherman out of the army or compel 
him to oppose his friend — to force these men into such 
positions, who had done what they had for the country — all 
for the sake of enabling Johnson to triumph over the will of 
the people who had won in the war — Johnson too, who was 
only by chance, or by assassination, in his place. The strain 
between Grant and Sherman was terrible ; the feeling, pitiable. 

Sherman's letter to the President was as emphatic as that 
to Grant. He declared : " If I could see my way clear to 
maintain my family I would not hesitate a moment to resign 
my present commission and seek some business wherein I 
could be free from these unhappy complications that seem to 
be closing about me." He implored a revocation of the 
order, and continued : " By being placed in Washington I 
will be universally construed as a rival to the General-in-Chief, 
a position damaging to me in the highest degree. Our rela- 
tions have always been most confidential and friendly, and if 
unhappily any cloud of difference should arise between us, 
my sense of personal dignity and duty would leave me no 
alternative but resignation. I shall proceed to arrange for it 
as rapidly as possible, so that when the time does come, as it 
surely will, if this plan is carried into effect, I may act 
promptly." He ended by pronouncing "the blow one of the 
hardest I have sustained in a life somewhat checkered by 
adversity." 

Neither the feeling nor the conduct of Sherman at this 
crisis can be fully appreciated without remembering that he 
did not approve the course of Congress in many respects, and 
would certainly have preferred a more lenient policy toward 
the South. But questions like these were now far in the 
background, and the devices of Johnson were such as Sher- 
man never could have indorsed. There were, indeed, many 
honorable and loyal men who believed that the course 
9 



GRANT I.N PEACE. 

the President, would have been more 

ry, and at this distance of time all can 

in which Congress might have acted with 

. but the crooked arts and iniquitous 

bstinate, cunning, malicious man at the 

•nraent can recommend themselves neither 

ien of honor at the North or South, Demo- 

ms. They cost the country dear. The 

th did more harm to the South than to the illus- 

received it, or to the unhappy maniac by 

! .incoln fell. 

Sherman, was tortured by the petty craft 

e had thrust into a position where he could 

natures greater than his own. Grant now 

Sherman to write out his recollections of the 

riew with the President, at which Sherman had 

:it, in order to counterbalance the assertions of 

binet. On the iSth of February the General- 

dn to his friend, calling for his support in 

his honor : 

the President which you informed me by 

riday last had been mailed through me, has not yet 

. < ■ ime to-day. The course you have pursued 

tisfaction so far as 1 have heard any expres- 

I dispatch you sent to Senator Sherman has 

. but it is understood to be the ground of his 

\ i see by the papers Mr. J. has been 

your action, saying that his course was 

: before you left, and that you did not 

I ' i ourse 1 do not expect to make any 

h you have written, in my own vindication, 

'- tter to the President might set you right in 

who do not know you as well as 1 do, and 

• in the fact that you had been in Wash- 

i ommunication with the President, that you 

. him in his plans to utter me an indignity. I 



GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. ^j 

would be very glad to have you here if the public was not losing 
by bringing you away from where you are, and if not for the 
annoying position it would place you in. I have heard that 
Mr. Johnson said to some of his intimate friends that he intended 
to have you and me knock our heads together. Your intimation 
that you would resign under any circumstances has called out an 
expression that you should not be placed in a position to make it 
necessary, even if it took legislation to prevent the contingency. 
This of course is an individual expression of opinion. But I 
would say under no circumstances tender even a contingent 
resignation. You do not owe Mr. Johnson anything, and he is 
not entitled to such a sacrifice from you. Please present my 
kindest regards to Mrs. Sherman and the children." 

The scrupulous care with which in all this crisis Grant 
regarded Sherman's wishes, and strove to do nothing to 
commit him further than he chose, is shown in the following 
letter of the 22d of February to Senator Sherman : 

" The National Intelligencer of this morning contains a private 
note which General Sherman sent to the President while he was 
in Washington, dictated by the purest kindness and a disposition 
to preserve harmony, and not intended for publication. It seems 
to me that the publication of that letter is calculated to place the 
General in a wrong light before the public, taken in connection 
with what correspondents have said before, evidently getting their 
inspiration from the White House. As General Sherman after- 
ward wrote a semi-official note to the President, furnishing me a 
copy, and still later a purely official letter sent through me, which 
place him in his true position, and which have not been published, 
though called for by the " House," I take the liberty of sending 
you these letters to give you the opportunity of consulting General 
Sherman as to what action to take upon them. In all matters 
where I am not personally interested I would not hesitate to 
advise General Sherman how I would act in his place. But in 
this instance after the correspondence I have had with Mr. Johnson, 
I may not see General Sherman's interest in the same light others 
see it, or that I would see it in, if no such correspondence had 



\\T IX PEACE. 

I am clear in this, however : the correspondence here 

nld not be made public, except by the Presi- 

ie full sanction of General Sherman. Probably the 

: January, marked confidential, should not be 

ill." 

i was deterred by Sherman's protestations, by the 

the Senate to confirm the brevet, and by the fear 

nld damage himself if he insisted further. Doubt- 

iuspected that Sherman would not prove very 

if forced so much against his will into the 

( )n the 19th of February, therefore, the 

lent informed Sherman that he would not be ordered to 

1 days afterward, without consulting the 

m removed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo 

Adjutant-General of the Army, Secretary of 

.'. The same da}' a resolution was offered in 

• II ' Representatives that Andrew Johnson, Presi- 

United States, be impeached for high crimes and 

the 24th of February the resolution was 



' 1 by General Sherman in answer to the 
letter to General Grant, of January 31, 1866: 

ipt formally, 
t matters of importance should have transpired 
the memory of mere words in a general conversa- 
according to the bias of hearers. Will take 
ided. 
•lent on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday 
ledge of the action of the Senate and its 
>ul as the responsibility rested with 
I he would adopt his own course. 

r hinted at as necessary, as the law 
ted the tenure of the Secretary of War a J interim. 



GRANT, SHERMAN, AND JOHNSON. ^3 

" Know your own motive and wishes to secure as much 
harmony of action as possible, and to avoid as far as could be the 
controversy unhappily existing between President and Congress, 
but conscious of rectitude, forbear to question motives of others. 

" Question of Mr. Stanton is one of pure legality. His sitting 
in that particular office does not make him Secretary of War. If 
he is not Secretary of War, why does the Secretary of Treasury 
pay his drafts as such ? 

" The controversy as it stood then and as it stands now, is not 
one which the Commander-in-Chief should settle, but it is for the 
courts or the President by an ' order.' w. t. s." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 

GRANT had originally been very much averse to the 
proposition to impeach the President. Suggestions of 
this proceeding had been made as early as 1866, and in May of 
that year Grant wrote to Washburne, who was then in Europe : 
" But little is heard now about impeachment. It is sincerely 
to be hoped that we will not, unless something occurs here- 
after to fully justify it." It was not until Johnson's removal 
of Stanton and the appointment of Lorenzo Thomas as 
Secretary of War, and after his own violent differences with 
the President, that Grant looked with favor on this extreme 
measure. But when the motion for impeachment was finally 
passed he heartily approved it. He took the liveliest inter- 
est in the proceedings, and though he preserved a proper 
reticence in his public utterances, he did not scruple with 
those in his confidence to express his opinion that the action 
of Congress was entirely justified. He refused, however, to 
visit the Senate during the trial, and did nothing inconsistent 
with the dignity of his position. 

But the election for President was now only a few months 
off, and from the time of the publication of his final corre- 
spondence with Johnson it was evident that Grant must be 
the candidate of the Republicans. He no longer declined to 
acknowledge this probability, or to converse on the subject; 
and the leaders of the party continually consulted him during 
the progress of the trial. Before its conclusion he was 
formally nominated for the Presidency, and he would have 

(154) 



THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. ^5 

been untrue to his implied obligations had he failed to sym- 
pathize with his supporters in a matter so momentous as 
their battle with the President. 

His political convictions, as I have shown, had been 
forming and crystallizing for several years, amid the changing 
circumstances and contingencies of the time; but the action 
of Johnson undoubtedly precipitated his conclusions. For 
Grant was subject to all the ordinary feelings and even 
passions of a man, and the long series of attempts first to 
beguile and cajole him, and afterward to entrap and misrep- 
resent him, had their natural effect. They went hand in 
hand with what he thought the President's endeavors to 
thwart and frustrate the law, and the will of the loyal North. 
Finally, when Johnson at the same juncture assailed Grant's 
personal honor and defied the authority of Congress, the 
soldier resented one action while the citizen condemned the 
other. Doubtless the imputations on his character sharpened 
his appreciation of the public misconduct of his enemy ; no 
one is proof against inducements and influences like these ; 
but the fact did not lessen the purity of his conduct or the 
integrity of his motives. Christianity itself mingles personal 
considerations with those of abstract right and wrong ; and 
a man who has been struck in a righteous cause is hardly to 
be blamed if he returns the blow with increased and indig- 
nant zeal. Grant, I repeat, was very human ; tempted in all 
points like other men ; he was made neither of wood nor 
stone, but of flesh and blood; and at this juncture the fervor 
of his public spirit was certainly intensified by his indigna- 
tion at Johnson's behavior toward himself. 

But he committed no injustice. He resented his own 
wrongs, yet he made no display of rancor and descended to 
no unworthy wiles. He was at one time summoned before 
Congress, but he rigidly confined his testimony to what he 
had seen and known, and refused to exaggerate either the 
language or acts of the President or his own impressions of 



j 36 GRANT IN PEACE. 

them ; although he was certain that this very moderation 
would be an argument in Johnson's favor. 

Nevertheless, when he thought it his duty to take an 
important step, he did not hesitate. At the crisis of the 
trial it became evident that some of the Republican Senators 
were uncertain as to their judgment or their course, and 
Grant was urged to use his influence with them. The Sen- 
ators were judges, it is true, but this was a political trial, and 
Grant believed that he had a right to support the weak and 
confirm the strong in so grave an emergency. He not only 
conversed with those whose action he thought he could affect, 
arguing in favor of the conviction of Johnson and demon- 
strating his guilt, but he visited at least one Senator at his 
house with this purpose. This was Mr. Frelinghuysen. 
Grant told me of his intention before he paid the visit, and 
returned greatly gratified, for though Frelinghuysen had not 
disclosed his intention he had said enough to assure Grant of 
his views. Two or three days afterward Frelinghuysen voted 
in favor of conviction. 

The day before the verdict was rendered a remarkable 
scene occurred at Grant's headquarters. Benjamin F. Wade, 
the presiding officer of the Senate, would in case of the 
deposition of Johnson immediately become President. Nat- 
urally he was considering this possibility. He was an ardent 
Republican, and a friend and supporter of General Grant. 
He came to Grant's office while I was present and said : 
" General, I am here to consult with you about my Cabinet, 
in case Mr. Johnson is found guilty." I was allowed to 
remain during the interview. Mr. Wade then went on to 
say that as Grant was the candidate of the Republican party 
and would undoubtedly be elected, he wished to make no 
temporary appointments that would be unacceptable to his 
probable successor. Grant listened attentively but offered 
no suggestions of his own. The matter was profoundly 
delicate, and yet it was not improper for these two men, who 



THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON. l ^ 

might each in turn and so soon become the Head of the 
State, to compare their plans. Wade mentioned several 
names for Cabinet positions, and ascertained that Grant 
would not object to them. Stanton's, of course, was one of 
these. But Grant made no revelation of his own purposes, 
if indeed they were formed, and there was no discussion of 
policy ; about that they would doubtless be in accord. The 
interview lasted perhaps half an hour. But the next day 
Johnson was acquitted, and Wade never made a Cabinet. 
He got very close to greatness ; the vote of one man in the 
Senate excluded him. 

Grant was at first very much disappointed at the result of 
the trial, and said so to some of his intimates ; but he was 
discreet, and forebore to make his feeling public or its 
expression in any way indecorous. After a while his judg- 
ment changed, and he thought on the whole it was better 
for the country that the President should not have been 
removed. He believed that Johnson had been taught a 
lesson which he would not forget, and that the precedent 
of a successful impeachment would have been a greater 
misfortune to the State than any evil that Johnson might 
still have been able to accomplish. In addition to this I 
heard him say that a fear of Wade's well-known bitterness 
and lack of restraint reconciled him more easily to enduring 
Johnson a little longer. He even suggested that a similar 
apprehension might have influenced some of the Republican 
Senators who had voted for acquittal. 

As years went by Grant's judgment changed on several 
points in regard to which at this time he was very decided. 
He found the Tenure of Office act a great obstruction to his 
own authority as President, and was anxious for a much 
greater modification of its provisions than Congress was 
willing to concede. Yet he had been strongly in favor of 
curtailing Johnson's powers. He justified this apparent 
inconsistency by declaring that the times had been unusual, 



I3 8 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the man exceptional ; and that what was indispensable imme- 
diately after a great civil convulsion in order to prevent 
further commotions and possibly revolution, was unnecessary 
and indefensible in the ordinary years of peace. Grant 
indeed was never willing to let constitutional restrictions 
bind the State so that it could not save itself. He was 
full of reverence for law, but that the Sabbath was made 
for man, and not man for the Sabbath, was a doctrine to 
which in all things he subscribed. 

He was heartily glad when the turmoil of the impeach- 
ment was over, and was entirely satisfied to have a prominent 
Republican like Evarts accept a seat in Johnson's Cabinet. 
There were many in his party who disapproved the course 
of Evarts at this juncture. They were indignant even that 
he should defend the President professionally, and still more 
so when he consented to become a member of Johnson's 
Government. But Grant himself had set the precedent, and 
could not condemn the man who followed it. Both he .and 
Stanton had held places in the same Cabinet while disap- 
proving the policy of its chief; and he thought and said 
that Evarts, especially as the legal adviser of the Adminis- 
tration, might be able to act as a useful check, and thus 
do the country important service. He was glad also to have 
one man in the Cabinet with whom in most matters he could 
sympathize. 

The result of the trial was a crushing and intolerable blow 
to Stanton, from which he never recovered. Although there 
lacked but one vote of the two-thirds of the Senate neces- 
sary to convict the President, the verdict was in some sort 
a condemnation of the Secretary. It implied that he should 
not have remained in the Cabinet against the will of his 
chief, and it made it imperative on him immediately to resign. 
teral Schoficld was at once nominated by the President 
for the position of Secretary of War. Grant still retained 
some of the heat of the contest and wrote to Schoficld, 



THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHXSOX. ^q 

who was then in command at Richmond : " Under the 
circumstances I advise you to decline the Secretaryship in 
advance." But Schofield started for Washington and went 
at once to visit Grant, who revised his opinion, and Schofield 
entered the Cabinet with the full concurrence of the General- 
in-Chief. He displayed rare ability in his difficult position. 
He was able to perform his duties with efficiency, so as to 
satisfy the President, and at the same time not offend the Leg- 
islature nor the party that had sought to overthrow his chief. 
A subordinate of Grant in the army and his personal 
friend, owing indeed to Grant much of his advancement, 
he behaved to his great inferior with consummate tact and 
delicacy, deferring to him whenever this was proper, and 
nevertheless maintaining the dignity of his own position. 
Their relations were always extremely cordial. With Evarts 
and Schofield in the Cabinet, Grant was able, even as the 
candidate of the party that was so hostile to the President, 
to retain something like concord with the Government. 

EXTRACT FROM LETTER OF HON. EDWARDS PIERREPONT TO 
GENERAL BADEAU. 

" I knew Johnson personally; not very well, but well enough to 
see that he had immense cunning and persistency ; and it seemed 
clear to me that in the contest with his Secretary of War the 
President, clothed with all the powers of his great office, would 
in the end prevail, and that Stanton would sometime, somehow, 
be ousted from his place, and our long intimacy, I thought, war- 
ranted me in writing him the most earnest letter that I could pen, 
urging him to resign in the very beginning of the contest with his 
chief. I now have his reply in which he says that his wife warmly 
indorsed my letter, but that every other friend was against it; 
that those in the Senate and the House who had stood so faith- 
fully by him during the war implored him to remain; and that 
duty, patriotism, and fidelity to party all demanded that he should 
"stick." ... I was in Washington and dined with the Sec- 
retary at his house in K street, on the day when General Grant 






140 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



announced to Stanton that the President had urged him (General 
Grant) to accept the office of Secretary of War, and that the 
General had accepted the offer. The day was warm, and during 
the early twilight we sat in the wide hall with the street door open, 
talking upon this very subject, when General Grant came slowly 
up the steps. After the usual greeting and the passing of a few 
words, the General said to the Secretary that he wanted to speak 
with him, and the two retired to the library. They were absent 
from ten to fifteen minutes, and both looked troubled on their 
return. The General went away, only saying "Good evening." 
Stanton, with a suppressed agitation which was very marked, but 
in calm language, told me the purport of the interview and of 
what Sumner and other Senators had said to make him "stick." 
He then said: "You and Mrs. Stanton are the only ones who 
gave me good advice and I ought to have followed it." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 

I HAVE already shown Grant's original aversion to poli- 
tics. Immediately after the close of the war, the at- 
tention of the country was turned to the great soldier as a 
probable candidate for the Presidency, but to him nothing 
could be more disagreeable than the thought. Probably no 
man has ever been mentioned for the place who was more 
unwilling to accept the honor. He was plain and unassum- 
ing, for all his elevation, entirely satisfied with his position 
at the head of the army, and gratified with his personal pop- 
ularity. He had received no training in politics, and pos- 
sessed no aptitude for the career ; he disliked the ways and 
arts of politicians, and preferred his soldier friends and his 
reputation as a soldier to political associates or political 
fame. He knew, too, that he must lose some of his popu- 
larity when he became a candidate, must give up much of 
his ease and offend many of his friends when once he en- 
tered office. Besides all this, he had tasted the bitterness of 
poverty, and he was now placed beyond pecuniary anxiety, 
while, if he became President, he must relinquish the income 
of $22,000 a year that was settled on him for life. He had 
little to look forward to afterward, no resources to take the 
place of those he would lose ; and he was still young, — only 
forty-three when the war closed. He considered all these 
circumstances, and he told me afterward that he looked with 
positive apprehension at the probability, which by degrees 

(141) 



142 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



was converted into a certainty, of becoming a Presidential 
candidate. 

When he was first approached on the subject he resented 
the liberty and repelled all discussion of the theme. I have 
often seen men who hoped to draw him out receive very 
mortifying and unexpected rebuffs. They would make, per- 
haps, an elaborate little speech, devise a snare into which 
they thought he must certainly fall, invent a bait that must 
tempt him to talk ; but Grant would simply look at them 
with no expression whatever on his face, and say not a single 
word. If he had uttered anything at all they might have 
continued or renewed their wiles, but this absolute silence 
was the most embarrassing answer possible. It not only 
entirely baffled them, but was merciless in its way. They 
stammered and blushed, no matter how bold or adroit ; then 
they attempted to change the subject, and invariably, before 
many minutes, took their leave. Sometimes, as the door 
closed, Grant would look up at me with a quizzical expres- 
sion that showed he enjoyed their confusion. For a man 
unused to the stratagems of peace he was the most skillful 
and the most successful in these repulses I have ever seen. 
1 1 is interlocutors never returned to the charge. 

But the course of Johnson made it incumbent at last on 
the soldier to accept the political situation, however unwel- 
come. The people whom he had led in the war naturally 
looked to him to guard what he had won, and for a year 
before the actual necessity for decision there could be no 
mistaking the signs. Still Grant lived in the hope that the 
necessity might be averted. He would not admit to himself 
that he must take up the new role. The approach of the 
crisis awoke no ambition in him. Indeed, the spectacle of 
Johnson dishonored, impeached, almost deposed, was not cal- 
culated to make one who stood so near at all eager to become 
his successor. The struggles whose inner history Grant 
knew so well, the troubles with Cabinet [Ministers, the dis- 



GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 1 a^ 

tracting fears and anxieties of Johnson, perhaps the fate of 
Lincoln, — all conspired to dispel the illusions which men 
further off might entertain. Grant saw for himself that the 
lot of the President was a hard one ; and I do not believe 
he ever admitted to his own heart before the final rupture 
with Johnson that he would accept the nomination for the 
Presidency. 

This repugnance doubtless helped him to conceal so 
long his differences with the President, and made him sub- 
mit to more from Johnson than he otherwise would have 
endured. Then, too, Grant saw not a little in the conduct 
of Congress and of individual members of the Republican 
party which he did not commend. Of course, with the gen- 
eral policy of the party he was in accord, but he disapproved 
many particulars and disliked many men that, as a candidate, 
he must in some sort indorse. Besides all this, he had 
many admirers and some warm personal friends among the 
Democrats whom he was unwilling to lose, and the influence 
of his wife's family, which went for something, was decidedly 
hostile to the Republican policy and sentiment. Thus he 
deferred to the last moment taking the decisive step. 

But when he wrote the letter that defied the President he 
identified himself with the President's enemies. The country 
looked upon the step as signifying his willingness to be recog- 
nized as Johnson's antagonist. Johnson himself at the time, 
and even afterward, hoped to be the nominee of the Demo- 
crats. He was at this moment acting in unison with them ; 
his only friends were of their party ; he was their representa- 
tive, and though he did many things that many Democrats 
disapproved, they were forced as a party to uphold him. 
Thus when Grant was thrust into a position of personal and 
prominent hostility to Johnson, the Republicans claimed him 
and rallied around him. He knew himself that the die was 
cast. 

He was nominated by acclamation at Cincinnati in May, 



1AA GRANT IN PEACE. 

144 

1868. Stanton carried him the news. I was with Grant at his 
own headquarters when the Secretary of War entered the room. 
I had never seen Stanton there before, but this time he did 
not send for Grant. He came hurriedly up the stairs panting 
for breath lest some one should precede him. He had ob- 
tained the first information of the vote, even in advance of 
Grant, and as he rushed in he exclaimed: "General! I have 
come to tell you that you have been nominated by the Re- 
publican party for President of the United States." Grant 
received the intelligence as he did every important announce- 
ment of his life. There was no shade of exultation or agita- 
tion on his face, not a flush on his cheek, nor a flash in his 
eye. I doubt whether he felt elated, even in those recesses 
where he concealed his inmost thoughts. At that moment I 
believe he was sorry to leave his position in the army, and 
disliked as much as ever the prospect of new responsibilities 
and unfamiliar cares. But of course, when he was in a fight 
he desired to win, and since his name had been placed before 
the public with his tacit sanction, he would have been disap- 
pointed had he not received the nomination. Of that, how- 
ever, there had hardly been a possibility. The next night 
he made his first political speech, in answer to the public 
announcement of his nomination. The address was entirely 
unprepared, like almost every speech he ever made, but I 
took it down at the time. It was in these words : " Gentle- 
men, being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, and 
without the desire to cultivate the power, it is impossible for 
me to find appropriate language to thank you for this demon- 
stration. All that I can say is, that to whatever position I 
may be called by your will, I shall endeavor to discharge its 
duties with fidelity and honesty of purpose. Of my rectitude 
in the performance of public duties you will have to judge 
for yourselves by the record before you." 

With all his modesty Grant was conscious of his own 
character, lie felt the weight of the services he had ren- 
dered, and dared to allude to them without humility. 



GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. ^r 

Indeed he had been told so often that he was indispens- 
able at this crisis that he might be pardoned if he believed it. 
He thought at any rate that he was as important to the 
Republican party as the party was to him. He had not 
wanted the nomination and the party had wanted the pres- 
tige of his name at the polls. He was not now grateful to 
the party, for he believed that if the party leaders could have 
done without him they never would have nominated him. 
And it is true that he was not the choice of the leaders, who 
doubted his political ability and distrusted even yet his politi- 
cal fidelity ; he was forced upon them by the rank and file. 
Stanton, Chase, Greeley, Sumner — all would have preferred 
a purely political man. Grant knew this. 

He refused from the first to take any active part in the 
campaign. When the trial of the President was concluded 
and Congress adjourned, he set out for his little home in 
Galena to get away from arrangements and conferences. 
The party managers were very much annoyed by this course. 
Nearly all his friends thought it unwise, and those who were 
intimate enough advised against it. He was now, they said, 
the chief of the party, and its important members desired to 
consult him continually during the contest. But he replied 
that he did not wish to consult them. He had lent his 
name, but he would take no part, give no advice in the 
struggle. He went off as far as he could from the turmoil, 
and directed that his letters should not be forwarded to him, 
nor even opened. Grant, indeed, at this time, meant to keep 
himself untrammeled by pledges not only about place, but 
even about policy. He had some idea of being the President 
of the people rather than of a party. He became absolutely 
a politician afterward, but only this idea will account for 
much that was extraordinary in his course, both during the 
canvass and even after the election. He had no thought of 
being untrue to those who supported him, but he had not 
sought the nomination, and he felt himself more free on this 

10 



I4 g GRANT IN PEACE. 

account ; and he meant to keep himself so. This is not a 
surmise of mine ; it is what I have heard him declare. 

Wb.cn he went to Galena I remained in Washington writ- 
ing a pamphlet history of his life, to be used in the political 
canvass. He knew my occupation and approved it, so that 
he was not after all indifferent to success nor to the means 
to insure it. He simply did not wish to use these means 
himself in this campaign. He wanted to feel that he had 
not striven for his own elevation. 

When my work was complete, he wrote me the following 

letter : 

Galena, III., August 18, 1868. 
Dear Badeau, — As I have concluded to remain here till 
about the close of September, I think you had better open the 
letters that have accumulated in Washington. Such as are on 
official subjects refer to Rawlins. All others do with as your 
judgment dictates, only do not send any to me except such as you 
think absolutely require my attention and will not keep till my 
return. If you are not otherwise more agreeably engaged, I think 
you will find it pleasant here for a while and then to return with 
me. I have also written to Comstock to come out if he feels like 
it. The family are all well. Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Accordingly, I opened the hundreds of letters that had 
been received since his departure, answered those that 
required answers, and took a dozen or more with me to 
Galena. There I remained until the election, for Grant did 
not return to Washington before November. In all this 
period only one or two of the political people of consequence 
ventured to write to him, but many letters were addressed to 
me the contents of which were evidently intended for my 
chief. Of course, I laid all these before him, and my 
answers were governed by his wishes; but he still refused 
to advise, much mere to dictate any of the strategy of the 
campaign. E. B. Washburne and Russell Jones were the 



GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. l ^j 

only politicians of note who saw him often during the can- 
vass ; but they were his intimate personal friends and in his 
confidence in many ways. Rawlins remained nearly the entire 
summer at the East. He wrote rarely, but was in constant 
communication with the political managers. He was with- 
out orders or express sanction from Grant for this course, 
but Grant knew that Rawlins was acting in his interest, just 
as he knew that I had written his history for the campaign. 
Comstock, one of the aides-de-camp, was also at Galena, but 
he abstained scrupulously from politics. He prided himself 
on being a soldier, pure and simple. 

Two instances of Grant's persistent determination not to 
become a partisan I can now recall. General Frank Blair 
was the Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and 
in his speeches made repeated and offensive reference to 
Grant, pronouncing him a military despot, a tool of the poli- 
ticians, etc., etc., etc. ; but Grant refused to resent the 
language. He had been a warm personal friend of Blair and 
excused the heat of his expressions in a political campaign, 
though there were many military and political associates of 
each who thought these expressions unpardonable ; for Blair 
had received advancement and recognition from Grant, and 
was thoroughly conscious of the purity of Grant's intentions. 
All this made no difference in their personal relations ; and 
when Grant first met Blair after the canvass was over, he 
received him as cordially as ever. 

The other circumstance relates to Sherman. Many of 
Grant's friends thought that an expression of sympathy from 
Sherman, the utterance of. a wish for Grant's success, would 
have great weight with Sherman's old soldiers, as it certainly 
would have had ; but Sherman was determined to keep him- 
self entirely out of practical politics. He had sympathized 
with those who held that the South should have been 
allowed to return under milder conditions; and he was un- 
willing to say one word to imply a contrary feeling, even in 



I4 3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

favor of Grant. His silence provoked some caustic criticism 
from man}- who were anxious for Grant's election. But it 
never affected Grant. He respected Sherman's individuality; 
he thought Sherman had a right to his own views ; he was 
sure of Sherman's friendship ; and Sherman's reticence in no 
way lessened Grant's confidence. Yet I believe that Grant 
was anxious for the utterance which Sherman withheld, both 
as a matter of feeling and because he knew the weight it 
would carry. He was disappointed when the expression did 
not come ; but I heard him defend Sherman for not giving it. 
Their friendship stood this test also. 

During the political campaign Grant went about the coun- 
try very little. Once he visited St. Louis and once Chicago, 
but he stayed at the houses of intimate friends or relatives 
and avoided political demonstrations. There was a political 
meeting in Galena, but he was not present. His mornings 
were passed in reading and answering letters, or giving me 
directions or information for such as I was to reply to, though 
he often said : " Say nothing to that. If you do not answer, 
the letter will answer itself." He was always clever, and 
sometimes adroit, in his reticence. 

He read the newspapers closely, and discussed public 
affairs, even the chances of the election; for with all his taci- 
turnity, and all his apparent inaction, he would have been 
profoundly mortified at defeat. In the afternoon he drove or 
walked, paid visits to his old friends about Galena, sat in 

ir offices and warehouses, and took tea with their families 
in turn, lie had many transient visitors, and entertained 
them in the same simple fashion to which he had been accus- 
tomed before his greatness; perhaps with a more liberal 
hospitality but with as little ceremony. 

On the day of the election I accompanied him to the polls, 
where he voted for Washburne for member of Congress; 
and indeed cast his ballot for the entire Republican ticket, 
except for President. He was a citizen of Galena when the 
war broke out, and had not lost his franchise. 



4 



GRANT AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. ^q 

At about ten o'clock in the evening he went to Washburne's 
house, not far from his own. There arrangements had been 
made to receive the news ; wires were laid to connect with the 
office of the telegraph, and by these the messages were to come 
which would announce the name of the next President. 
There were in the room a dozen or more of the citizens of 
Galena, one or two correspondents of Republican newspa- 
pers, and a few political people, but except Washburne none 
of national importance. 

Every man present seemed more excited than he whose 
stake was greatest of all He did not pretend to be indiffer 
ent, but he would have displayed a greater anxiety if a friend 
had been the candidate. Once or twice the news was less 
favorable than had been expected, and sometimes there 
seemed a balancing of the chances, but I often saw him show 
more interest over a game at cards than on that night when 
the Presidency was played for. 

Finally, between one and two o'clock the returns were 
sufficiently definite for us to congratulate him on his elec- 
tion. Then we walked up the hill to his own modest house, 
and standing on the door-step the President-elect of the 
United States addressed a little company of between fifty 
and a hundred citizens and friends. He was undated in 
spirit, calm in bearing, and simple in speech, and uttered 
nearly the same thoughts as on the night when he had been 
nominated. I was very much struck with one expression 
which was afterward repeated in his inaugural address. It 
seemed to me eminently characteristic of the man and appro- 
priate to the occasion, though it was destined to be harshly 
criticised. "The responsibilities of the position I feel, but 
accept them without fear." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

PRESIDENT-ELECT. 

A FEW days after the election Grant returned from Ga- 
lena to Washington. He was accompanied by his family 
and three staff officers, of whom I was one. There had been 
threats of assassination, and I had opened several letters that 
contained warnings of this danger, but Grant took no precau- 
tions and made no change in his plans, though his route was 
known in advance. The aides-de-camp were armed, but this 
was without his knowledge. 

Twice when I had been traveling with Grant attempts 
were made to take his life. In North Carolina, on his return 
from the surrender of Johnston to Sherman, the train on 
which he was journeying was thrown from the rails under 
circumstances that left little doubt of the design. There was 
no one in the single car but the Union General-in-Chief and 
his party of two or three officers, and if some bitter and dis- 
appointed spirit out of all the millions at the South had taken 
this method to avenge the lost cause, it would hardly have 
been extraordinary, and certainly not unprecedented. At 
another time, soon after the war, Grant was passing through 
Southern Indiana, a region where the rancor during the re- 
bellion had been almost fiercer than in the field, and as those 
who indulged in it did not fight, but only talked, they cher- 
ished their hatred when the war was ended — unlike most of 
the men who spilt their blood for the cause they preferred. 

It was night, and we were on a special train, again in a 
single car. Again there was no one in the party but Grant 

(ISO) 



PRESIDENT-ELECT. 1 5 1 

with two of his staff, a servant, and the officers of the road. 
We were moving at a rapid rate, and about midnight arrived 
at a bridge at least an eighth of a mile in length, and that 
crossed a stream seventy or eighty feet below. The night 
was dark, and a switch had been left open at the approach to 
the bridge, while stones were placed on the road in advance. 
The train was, of course, thrown off the rails, but the impetus 
was sufficient to carry us across the bridge and into a narrow 
cut beyond, before the car was overturned. The banks of 
the cut prevented a serious fall, and the speed of the engine 
had been checked, but Grant was more disturbed than I often 
saw him in an emergency. The car was violently shaken, 
and he left his seat and went to the door before the motion 
ceased. No one was injured, but had the overturn occurred 
twenty seconds sooner the train must have been precipitated 
into the river. The car was too much damaged to proceed, 
but we mounted the engine and in this way traveled to our 
destination through the night. There was no doubt in the 
mind of any that the interruption had been planned, but it 
was thought wise to say nothing on the subject, and the de- 
tails of the incident were not made public. Only one or two 
miscreants had probably been concerned in the attempt, and 
there was no reason to cast odium on a whole region, or to 
arouse the indignation of the country, which was hardly yet 
appeased after the murder of Lincoln. Grant himself en- 
joined silence in regard to the circumstance, and his compan- 
ions were very willing to comply, for crime is contagious, and 
to announce one attempt like this is to suggest another. 

There was little change in Grant's outward demeanor 
after the election. He was as simple as ever, though some- 
what more reserved. I fancied I saw the shadow of his 
coming responsibility and that it depressed him. On his 
arrival at Washington he was at once beset with applications 
for office, and advice for his own behavior and policy. One 
of his acquaintances, a Mr. Corbyn, who afterwards became 



l c 2 GRANT IX PEACE. 

his brother-in-law, wrote out an inaugural address for him in 
full, and brought it to him in my presence. As soon as 
Corbyn left the room Grant handed the paper to me and told 
me to seal it up, and be sure it was not read by any human 
being till after the 4th of March. He never knew the con- 
tents, and I never read more than the first line : " Fellow- 
citizens, I appear before you at this time." 

There were more than six hundred letters waiting for him 
in Washington, all of which I opened. A newspaper corres- 
pondent came in and saw me at this task, and the next week 
there was a caricature of " The man that opens the letters " 
sitting behind a heap of rejected applications as high as the 
table ; this part of the representation was not exaggerated. 
Grant directed me to show him no letters that asked for 
office. He always had an idea that the man who sought a 
place was unfit for it ; that the place should seek the man ; 
a notion that in his case might have been correct, for he 
lacked ordinary ambition, and yet possessed great faculties ; 
but most people will consider that he was exceptional in this 
peculiarity as in so many others. 

Some of the applications, however, came from people of 
so much consequence, or from friends of such a degree of 
intimacy, personal or political, that notwithstanding his 
injunction I did not always feel at liberty to withhold them, 
and he tacitly admitted that I was right. Among the aspi- 
rants was Henry Wilson, then Senator from Massachusetts, 
and afterward Vice-President, who set forth his desires and 
qualifications for the position of Secretary of War. Grant 
did not answer the letter, and the subject was never broached 
in conversation between them. Those who wanted foreign 
missions were numerous, and collectorships and other lucra- 
tive posts were in great demand. But no applicant received 
an answer. 

While he was at Galena, Grant had said to me, that he 
thought Motley, the historian, would make a good Secretary 



PRESIDENT-ELECT. 



153 



of State. Motley had been Minister at Vienna, but was 
removed by Johnson for criticising the Reconstruction policy 
of the Administration too sharply, and great sympathy was 
felt for him by Republicans. Sumner, especially, was anxious 
that he should be restored to the post he had lost. Mot- 
ley corresponded with me during the canvass, and sent 
me copies of the speeches he made for Grant. These were 
shown to Grant, and they impressed him favorably. But 
soon after the election, Grant visited Boston, where Motley 
called on him. I did not accompany my chief on this occa- 
sion, and on his return I asked his opinion of Motley. 
" He parts his hair in the middle and carries a single eye- 
glass," was the reply ; and the tone, as much as the words, 
indicated that the historian was too foreign in his ways to 
please the President-elect. At that time, Grant had not 
entirely rid himself of the narrowness of his early life, some 
of which, indeed, lasted even through his Presidency; but 
after he went abroad and met so many great men in Europe 
and Asia, and even Africa, with dress and manners different 
from anything he had seen in America, he ceased to regard 
such peculiarities as decisive. No man ever grew or ex- 
panded in mind and taste and character more continuously 
and conspicuously. 

During the winter of 1868-9, Seward, as Secretary of 
State, attempted to settle the difficulties with England aris- 
ing: out of the Alabama claims. As the new Administration 
was just coming into power, the Republicans were very 
indignant that a discredited Cabinet should assume to 
control the policy of the nation in so important an affair. 
But Seward persisted, and a treaty was negotiated at London 
which was extremely unacceptable to the Republicans, and, 
indeed, to the majority of the nation, of whatever party. 
Grant was especially displeased, and expressed his feeling 
openly. He disliked Seward, to whom he attributed not a 
little of Johnson's craft, and he thought the negotiation an 



jc 4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

unwarrantable intrusion on his own approaching prerogatives. 
Besides this, he entirely disapproved the concessions of the 
Administration to England. 

Before the treaty was confirmed, he took a remarkable 
step. I was personally acquainted with Sir Edward (then 
Mr.) Thornton, the British Minister, and Grant directed me 
to pay the Envoy a visit, and in the course of conversation, 
make known his objections to the treaty; in fact, to declare 
that I was certain Grant would use his influence to prevent 
its confirmation by the Senate, and if it should be ratified, 
would, as President, assuredly procure its revocation. I 
made my visit, not stating that I had been sent by Grant, 
but implying this as well as I was able without express words. 
The Minister doubtless understood my object, and knew that 
such a visit could not possibly have been paid by the confi- 
dential secretary of the President-elect, without the sanction 
of his chief. If he did his duty, he notified his own Govern- 
ment ; but the only result apparent was a renewed haste on 
the part of the plenipotentiaries, so that the treaty might be 
concluded before Grant came into his place. It was ratified 
by the contracting Governments, but almost immediately 
rejected by the Senate, and in less than two months the 
Administration that made it was out of power. The Treaty 
of Washington, negotiated under Grant and Gladstone, took 
its pi 

This was not the only occasion when Grant acted as if 
the responsibilities of government were very near. General 
Rosecrans was nominated by Johnson as Minister to Mexico 
about this time; the appointment was known to be very dis- 
agreeable to Grant, if not purposely designed to be offensive 
to him. The animosity of Rosecrans after Grant removed 
him from command at Chattanooga had never ceased. He 
had, like most of the discarded generals, joined the party that 
opposed the war, and had supported Johnson through all his 
tergiversations and aberrations. To appoint an important 



PRESIDENT-ELECT. 



155 



Minister immediately before the beginning of a new admin- 
istration would have been under any circumstances discourte- 
ous and exceptional, but when the Minister was openly and 
personally hostile to the probable incoming President, the 
nomination appeared a studied insult. 

After his election Grant directed me to write to his 
personal friend, Mr. Romero, who had long been Mexican 
Minister to the United States, but was now in the Mexican 
Government. I was to address him, not avowedly by Grant's 
order, but so that my authority could not be mistaken, and 
to state to Romero how distasteful the appointment of Rose- 
crans was to Grant. The envoy thus would be unable in 
the short time that he enjoyed his honors to execute any 
important diplomatic business, or to thwart the policy of 
the incoming Government. Grant would probably not have 
taken this course but for his profound interest in Mexican 
affairs, an interest of which the Administration was very well 
aware. He had recommended a definite policy in regard to 
Mexico, and to have a man appointed as Minister there who 
was likely to oppose in advance whatever he believed were 
Grant's views, was in Grant's eyes sufficient justification for 
this interference. 

It must be remembered too, that Grant had been given by 
Congress an authority that made him in many matters inde- 
pendent of the President. It had been declared his duty 
to oppose the President's acts and policy. He had seen 
Johnson tried for high crimes and misdemeanors, and almost 
deposed. He believed that his own election was the con- 
demnation of Johnson and the fiat of the people directing 
him to undo much that Johnson had done. Yet Johnson 
was endeavoring to carry out measures in regard both to 
England and Mexico which he knew to be unacceptable to 
the people and offensive to the President they had chosen. 
Now, when Grant found himself on the threshold of the 
highest place, the sensation of power, as well as the con- 



jrg GRANT IN PEACE. 

sciousness of his own rights, was very strong. The acts I 
have described are evidence that he felt the importance of 
his position more fully than he showed. They were not 
known to any man about him but myself, and were never 
revealed by me until now. 

As the time approached when Grant was to enter upon 
his new functions those who were expecting place or recog- 
nition at his hand became restive because he gave no inti- 
mation of his purposes. Every effort was made to obtain an 
insight into his plans, but without avail. He did not disclose 
even to Rawlins or Washburne — who had been his trusted 
intimates from the very beginning of his greatness — what 
he meant to do for or with them. Henry J. Raymond, the 
editor of the New York Times, was a warm, and, of course, 
an important supporter of Grant ; he wrote to me beg- 
ging for a hint of the future President's policy, so that he 
might be prepared to advocate it. I read the letter to Grant, 
but he refused to furnish any data for a reply. Horace 
Greeley also, I was told by those who should have known, 
would have been glad to be taken into Grant's confi- 
dence, although he made himself no application like Ray- 
mond's ; but the same silence was preserved toward him. 
The country was full of comment on this reticence, and 
many of Grant's friends became anxious, not only those who 
wanted place, but others from a genuine and patriotic con- 
cern. But Grant kept every intention within his own breast 
down to a very few days before his inauguration. 

He was led to this unusual course partly by his military 
habits and experience, and partly, no doubt, by a belief that 
his own judgment was better than that of any who could 
advise him. He had been used in the army to appointing 
commanders without consulting their wishes and to order- 
ing movements without informing his inferiors; and he 
kept up the practice in civil life. Many of his Cabinet 
Ministers were appointed before they themselves were noti- 
fied. One of them told me he felt as if he had been struck 



PRESIDENT-ELECT. T 5 7 

by lightning when he heard of his own nomination. Mar- 
shall Jewell went to Washington once to urge the appoint- 
ment of a friend to the Russian Mission, but was unsuccess- 
ful, and on his return he learned that his own name had been 
sent to the Senate for the post. Jewell was afterward dis- 
missed from the Cabinet in the same peremptory way. 
Grant said to him one morning: "Mr. Jewell, I would like 
to receive your resignation"; and that was the Minister's 
first and only warning. 

But besides this, Grant was undoubtedly at this time 
affected by the adulation that was offered him. His head 
was as little turned as any man's who comes into the highest 
place; but he had been told for years of his greatness, of 
his judgment, and of his knowledge of men. All who ap- 
proach Presidents or Presidents-elect say what they think 
will please them and withhold what will displease ; all have 
something to ask, if only recognition, for the recognition of 
Presidents is itself an honor; and most people want much 
more. Every one now was assuring Grant that the people 
reposed full confidence in him, that he was the sole arbiter, 
the judge of last resort; and in some sort this was true; but 
the unwillingness to ask or take any advice in this untried 
and most difficult of all positions — in a man who had no 
experience either in distributing the patronage or administer- 
ing the affairs of civil government — betrayed a confidence 
in himself almost unprecedented. This is the explanation of 
the distance at which he kept not only the public and the 
press, but political and personal friends. He alone was to 
be President, and he alone, he thought, was responsible. 

But no man is so much above and beyond his fellows as 
to be able to dispense entirely with their aid. Had Grant 
called around him and consulted able and experienced states- 
men at this juncture, many misfortunes to himself, his 
friends, and to the country would doubtless have been 
avoided. He would not, perhaps, have been obliged, in a 
second inaugural address, to admit the mistakes he had 



j_3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

made. I will yield to none in regard for his memory or 
admiration for his achievements, but the world will more 
readily believe me when I recount his excellences if I do not 
hesitate to portray his errors ; and this that I now point out 
was one of the most conspicuous in his career. 

One afternoon, about three weeks before the 4th of 
March, Grant wrote his inaugural address. I was alone with 
him in the room, and when he had finished he handed the 
paper to me. This was before the return of Rawlins from 
Connecticut, whither he had gone sick and almost heart- 
broken, because Grant withheld his confidence. The address 
was written at the first almost as it was afterward delivered. 
Grant told me to lock it up carefully, and it is within my 
knowledge that he showed it to no one but myself until a 
day or two before the inauguration. I reviewed it repeated- 
ly with him during this period, for he was used to allowing 
me to read his most important and secret papers, and to 
make what suggestions I chose as to matter or style. But 
in all his utterances I was always anxious that he should say 
his own thought, and as far as possible in his own way. On 
this occasion I suggested one material change, or, rather, 
addition. 

I had been greatly impressed with the sentence he ut- 
tered at Galena on the night of his election : " The responsi- 
bilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear." 
I proposed that he should introduce this line, and pointed 
out where I thought it could be inserted. He approved the 
suggestion, and this sentence — his own — became a part of 
the inaugural address. There were one or two verbal modi- 
fications besides, and these were all. The draft was never 
out of ray keeping till it was copied on either the 2d or the 
3d of March. It is in my possession now with the penciled 
interpolation and other alterations in my own hand. Grant 
gave it to me on the 3d of March after the doors were closed 

! all visitors excluded, when he and I together revised the 
address for the last time. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CABINET-MAKING. 

ON the 4th of March Grant refused the company of the 
outgoing President on his way to the Capitol, and 
Johnson remained at the White House signing his last 
papers, until noon. Then he made room for the man whom 
he doubtless detested more than any other, who had done 
more than any other to foil his plans and thwart his wishes, 
and who now was to supplant him and demolish whatever of 
a policy Johnson had been able to establish by obstinacy or 
circumstance or craft. At the Capitol another of Grant's 
rivals, Chief-Justice Chase, administered the oath of that 
office which he had himself so earnestly hoped and striven 
to attain. 

And thus the highest honor that any American can 
obtain was added to the military glories already heaped on 
Grant. He was very reserved and even restrained, colder 
in manner than ever before, and evidently felt the gravity 
of his position, the full dignity of his office. I had never 
seen him so impressed but once before. In the first day's 
battle in the Wilderness he was almost stern at times, and 
wore his gloves and sword; both were unusual circumstances 
with him and they seemed to me to indicate his sense of the 
novel and increased responsibilities, for that was his first 
battle as General-in-Chief of the armies. On this first day 
of his Presidency there were no trappings of office to 
assume, but he bore himself with a distant and almost 
frigid demeanor that marked how much he felt he was 

(159) 



j5 grant in peace. 

removed from those who had hitherto been in some sort 
his associates. That day there was no geniality, no familiar 
jest, hardly a smile; but the man who became the chief 
of a nation of fifty millions and stepped into the ranks of 
earth's mightiest potentates might well be grave. 

His personal staff attended him to the Capitol and 
afterward to the White House, where their military rela- 
tions with him ceased. He desired them to meet him the 
next morning in the Cabinet chamber, and then returned 
to his private residence, which his family did not vacate 
for several weeks. He directed me, however, to remain at 
the White House and receive any communications for him 
during the day. In this way it happened that his first 
correspondence as President was with me. I give it in full : 

Executive Mansion, March 4, 1869. 

Dear General, — Mr. George H. Stuart is one of a committee, 
the others being the Chief-Justice and Senator Frelinghuysen, who 
desire to present you in the name of some religious society with a 
Bible. They will wait on you whenever you say — except that 
the Chief-Justice must be at the Supreme Court, and Mr. Stuart 
leaves here to-morrow night. If you will send word to me what 
time will suit you, I will let Mr. Stuart know. Mr. Stuart proposes 
to-morrow morning before ten o'clock, or if the court does not 
meet till eleven, before that time. With great respect, 

Your obedient servant, Adam Badeau. 

To the President of the United States. 

My note was returned to me, and on the back of it 
Grant penciled these words, the first he wrote as President : 

"To-morrow before 10 a. m. at my house, or between 10 a. m. 
and 3 P. m. at the Executive Mansion. U. S. G. 

The meeting took place in the Cabinet room, and Chase 
presented the Bible, expressing a hope that its contents 
might enable Grant to fill his high office worthily. The 



CABINET-MA K I NT,. 



161 



Chief-Justice must have required a full share of Christian 
sentiment to enable him to perform Ms task. 

Immediately afterward Grant received his staff for the 
last time, and announced the disposition to be made of them 
Three were nominally placed on the staff of Sherman, who 
succeeded Grant as General-in-Chief, but they were in reality 
to be on duty at the Executive Mansion. Horace Porter 
was to act as private secretary, with Babcock to assist him ; 
Comstock had some nominal duties from which he soon 
requested to be relieved, and ordered to duty as engineer ; 
Dent remained as aide-de-camp with ceremonial functions, 
and Parker was shortly afterward appointed Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs. I was assigned a room at the Executive 
Mansion, where I was to finish my Military History and to 
have some charge of Grant's unofficial letters for a while ; 
but when I saw the President alone he informed me that 
he meant to give me the mission to Belgium. He did not 
wish, however, to appoint me at once, lest it should provoke 
a charge of favoritism. 

A few weeks before the 4th of March, as nothing was 
said by Grant to either Rawlins or Washburne of their 
future, both became ill. Rawlins went off to Connecticut, 
and from there it was reported to Grant that he was dying. 
Grant sent for him and told him he was to be Secretary of 
War, whereupon Rawlins at once got very much better. 
But Washburne was ill of the same disease, and to him 
Grant now offered the position of Secretary of the Interior. 
Rawlins, of course, was satisfied with his promised dignity, 
but Washburne would have preferred to be Secretary of the 
Treasury. This position, however, Grant designed for Alex- 
ander T. Stewart, the well-known merchant of New York. 
He thought that a man who had managed his own affairs so 
well must be successful with the finances of the Nation. 
Stewart was, indeed, the first of those designed for Cabinet 
positions whom Grant informed of his intention. It was 



11 



l62 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



necessary that the great business man should be apprised in 
advance, that he might make his arrangements in time. 

When Washburne became certain that he could not 
obtain the portfolio of the Treasury, he asked for the State 
Department, but Grant was unwilling to make the appoint- 
ment. Washburne then declared that he would prefer to be 
Minister to France, and to this Grant consented. But 
Washburne again requested as a personal favor that he 
might hold the position of Secretary of State for a few days. 
The consideration this would give him afterward both at 
home and in his new position was something he thought 
Grant should not refuse. Washburne, indeed, had been a 
devoted friend, had made many opportunities for Grant in 
the days when Grant needed them, had first suggested and 
afterward urged in Congress every one of Grant's promo- 
tions that required legislative action, from Brigadier-General 
of Volunteers to General of the Armies, and if Grant was 
under obligations to any human being it was to Washburne. 
He knew, besides, that Washburne had expected more than 
he was receiving, that he was a disappointed man, as he well 
might be; and Grant consented to the temporary appoint- 
ment of Secretary of State, with the understanding that no 
important places were to be filled while Washburne held the 
position ; that he was to have the name, but not the authority. 

James F. Wilson of Iowa, was offered the State Depart- 
ment permanently, but declined it, on the ground that he had 
no private fortune, and that the salary was insufficient for 
the inevitable expense that must be incurred. Wilson also 
probably felt that his abilities were better fitted for other 
posts. Rawlins had suggested Wilson's name, for after 
Rawlins knew that he was himself to be a Cabinet Minister 
he felt free to offer advice on many points, and, in fact, re- 
gained an influence, if not an ascendency, which at one time 
seemed to have waned. 

Rawlins, however, was not to be Secretary of War imme- 



CABINET-MAKING. 163 

diately. Schofield was to hold the place for a week. Pie 
had proved himself a friend in a position where he might 
have given Grant trouble, and this recognition was his 
reward. He sat as Grant's first Secretary of War. 

No other appointments to the Cabinet were made known 
in advance, even to those for whom they were intended. 
The other Ministers first read their names in the newspapers 
on the 5th of March. A few days before the inauguration, 
Adolph E. Borie, of Philadelphia was in Washington, and on 
the 3d of March he called on the President-elect. Grant had 
given orders that no visitor whatever should be received ; 
for he had only a few hours left in which he intended to close 
his business as General-in-Chief. But when Borie was re- 
fused admission he sent his card to me, and begged me to 
procure him two or three moments' audience. He had two 
friends with him from Philadelphia whom he was extremely 
anxious to present to Grant, and he promised not to remain 
nor to mention politics. Accordingly I suggested that as 
Borie had been so good a friend he should be accorded a 
moment's interview. Grant acquiesced, and Borie and his 
friends came in. There had been a vast deal of talk in the 
newspapers about a Cabinet Minister from Pennsylvania, and 
Grant at once inquired : " Well, Mr. Borie, have you come 
to learn the name of the man from Pennsylvania ? " Borie 
disclaimed any curiosity, and two days afterward, return- 
ing to Philadelphia, he read on the train that his own name 
had been sent to the Senate as Secretary of the Navy. He 
was "the man from Pennsylvania," and that was the first he 
knew about it. 

Grant, indeed, at this time, looked upon Cabinet Ministers 
as on staff officers, whose personal relations with himself 
were so close that they should be chosen for personal 
reasons ; a view that his experience in civil affairs somewhat 
modified. If he had served a third term in the Presidency, 
his selections for the Cabinet would hardly have been made 



j5 4 grant in peace. 

because he liked the men as companions or regarded them 
as personal friends. At this juncture also, Rawlins was con- 
stantly urging that Grant should have no men about him 
who could possibly become his rivals. He was always 

ting to the trouble that Chase and Seward and other 
aspirants had made in Lincoln's Cabinet, and declared that a 
man who would not subordinate his own ambition to that of his 
chief should not be allowed to enter the Government. Grant 
never replied to remarks like these, but he would have been 
no more than human if he had remembered them. He cer- 
tainly now took no man into his Cabinet whose Presidential 
aspirations seemed likely to come into conflict with his own. 
And Grant, from the first, I am sure, desired are-election. 
He did not say so ; but no man can hold the Presidential 
office and not be anxious for this indorsement from the peo- 
ple. The ambition is both proper and inevitable ; and Grant 
entertained it, like every President who either followed or 
preceded him. I have, however, no idea that he was plan- 
ning for re-election thus early; and he certainly never 
admitted either at the time or afterward that such motives 
affected him in the selection of Cabinet Ministers. Never- 
theless, I thought then, and I think still, that he was deter- 
mined to have no rivals near the throne. 

On the 5th of March the Cabinet appointments were 
sent to the Senate. Washburne was to be Secretary of 
State ; Stewart, Secretary of the Treasury ; Borie, Secretary 
of the Navy ; Creswell, Postmaster-General ; Hoar, Attor- 

General, and Cox, Secretary of the Interior. Schoficld 
remained Secretary of War. It was soon discovered that 
Stewart was Ineligible to the post for which he had been 
named. The law declared that no person engaged in trade 
should be appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Grant had 
been ignorant of this provision, and the Senate was equally 
so, for the nomination was confirmed unanimously. As soon, 
however, as the disability was ascertained, Grant requested 



CABINET-MAKING. 165 

that Stewart should be exempted by Congress from the 
operation of the law ; but this the Senate was unwilling to 
concede, and Stewart's name was accordingly withdrawn. 
Both Grant and Stewart were greatly mortified at the result. 
Stewart offered to place his business in the hands of trustees 
during his entire term of office and to devote the proceeds to 
some charity or public interest, but this was insufficient to 
remove the scruples of the Senate, and Grant could not 
delay the formation of his Cabinet. Stewart felt sore be- 
cause Grant gave him up so soon, and their friendship was 
never again so intimate as it once had been. The whole 
occurrence provoked much harsh criticism, and it was said 
that if Grant had consulted men of civil experience, and not 
trusted entirely to his own judgment and knowledge, the 
blunder would never have been made. 

George H. Boutwell was hurriedly selected for the Treas- 
ury, but as he and Hoar were both from Massachusetts, 
another change became almost inevitable. Hoar, indeed, 
remained in his place a year, and was nominated to the bench 
of the Supreme Court on his retirement, but the Senate re- 
fused to confirm him. He naturally disliked to be displaced 
to make room in another department, and his relations with 
the President were in consequence somewhat strained. He 
knew from the first that his position was insecure, and was 
never the ardent friend of the President that as Cabinet 
Minister he might otherwise have been. At least so Grant 
always thought. 

And now, as Wilson declined the position of Secretary of 
State, and Washburne was not to be allowed to remain, it 
became necessary to find a substitute. In this emergency 
Grant offered the place to Hamilton Fish of New York, and 
sent Colonel Babcock, one of his new secretaries, to that city 
with the proposition. The offer was entirely unexpected by 
Fish, and at first he was not inclined to accept it. He 
would, indeed, have preferred the post of Minister to Eng- 



i66 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



land, and it required some urging before he consented to 
enter the Cabinet. Thus the two most important places in 
the new Government were rilled by men who had not been 
originally selected by Grant. 

Meanwhile Borie had read the notification of his appoint- 
ment as Secretary of the Navy, and proceeded to Washing- 
ton to thank the President and decline the honor. I was 
intimate with him, and knowing his reluctance to accept the 
post, I met him at the station to do what I could to change 
his feeling. I represented the unfortunate condition of 
affairs, the frequent changes and disappointments, the 
blunder about Stewart, the uncertainty about Fish, and Cox, 
and Hoar, who had all been taken by surprise, and the dis- 
credit it would bring on the new Administration if still 
another Cabinet Minister delayed or declined. Borie was 
personally very much attached to Grant, and I urged that 
his acquiescence under the circumstances would be an act of 
positive friendship. He finally consented to remain in the 
Cabinet for a few months, until the President could find a 
successor without increasing the public dissatisfaction at 
these frequent changes. Of course it was his regard for 
Grant that decided Borie, but he often laughingly said to me 
that but for my urging he would not have entered the 
Cabinet. 

Cox and Hoar also finally accepted the honor tendered, 
but not until the former General-in-Chief discovered that he 
could not order eminent civilians into office as he had been 
used to sending soldiers to a new command. lie was some- 
what surprised that any one should hesitate to accept the 
position he offered, but as a matter of fact nearly every mem- 
ber of his Cabinet but Rawlins had to be urged to accept his 
place. Even if their ambition was gratified, the suddenness 
of the summons found them unprepared ; they had their 
private affairs to arrange, and every man assuming a high 
tical place desires some time to fit himself properly for 
h:^ new career. 



CABINET-MAKING. \(yj 

Thus Washburne was supplanted in a week by Fish, 
Stewart's name was withdrawn and Boutwell's substituted, 
Schofield was followed before the end of the month by 
Rawlins, and in less than a year Akerman succeeded Hoar. 
All of these changes came from Grant's inexperience or from 
the secrecy with which he had veiled his intentions, not only 
from the individuals most affected, but from others who 
might have predicted, or perhaps prevented what occurred. 

Finally, however, the Cabinet was constructed, and the 
new President began his administration of the Government. 
He was the same man who had been surrounded at Belmont 
and nearly crushed at Shiloh, who had plodded through the 
marshes of Vicksburg and fought the weary forty days in the 
Wilderness. He had made, indeed, a false start, but it was 
not the first time, and one rebuff never daunted or dis- 
couraged Grant. He remembered that he had overcome 
Johnson in politics as well as Lee in war, and he felt no 
unwillingness or inability to cope with his new difficulties. 

Alexander T. Stewart was a New York merchant who had been 
stanchly loyal, as well as liberal with his wealth and his influence 
and his labor, in the cause of the Union, and he early became one 
of Grant's most devoted friends. The stand he took during the 
Rebellion brought him into further prominence, and first made 
him more than a great tradesman. It showed him, indeed, in his 
largest aspect ; for he was narrow in many things. The lack of 
early advantages was more apparent in him than in many of the 
self-made men of America. It was not only that he had the true 
merchant spirit — that he was munificent with millions and mean 
about a penny ; not so much that he showed the lack of scholar- 
ship or deficiency in other acquirements ; but there was a small- 
ness about his ideas, a pettiness at times about his feeling, a lack 
of many sides to his character — all of which betrayed the life of 
application to business he had led for more than forty years — so 
close indeed, that he had time for nothing else. And yet it was 
this very life that resulted in his mammoth fortune and the impor- 



i68 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



tance and opportunities it gave him. This fortune and his pat- 
riotic course brought him into connection with General Grant, and 
thus made his name national. 

During the winter preceding Grant's first inauguration, I remem- 
ber dining at Stewart's house with the President-elect. The com- 
pany was composed exclusively of men, but of as much distinction, 
social or personal, 'as often meets under one roof in New York: 
Hamilton Fish, John Jacob Astor, Joseph Harper, Edwards Pierre- 
pont, Charles P. Daly, Henry Hilton, all were present, and others, 
perhaps as eminent. The table of course was sumptuous, and all 
the accessories elaborate. Mr. Stewart called especial attention 
to the Johannisberger wine of some famous vintage, which, at the 
close of the dinner, was served by the thimbleful ; he only brought 
it out, he said, on extraordinary occasions ; it had cost him thirty 
dollars a bottle. Nobody dreamed then that Mr. Stewart was to 
be appointed Secretary of the Treasury; but before the 4th of 
March the place was offered him. 

When the difficulties proved insurmountable Stewart lost his 
only chance of becoming a statesman. The President could find 
another Secretary of the Treasury, but Stewart had no other Pres- 
ident to turn to. He became a plain dry goods man again, without 
place, or power, or public career. To be so near a great position, 
and yet to lose it ; to be appointed and confirmed, and even con- 
gratulated, to have made his arrangements and, doubtless, deter- 
mined on his appointments in advance, and yet to be dashed 
down to private life, was hard. But besides this, Stewart thought 
that some of the importance or influence which had been offered 
him should have been allowed to remain. He even wanted to 
retain a little of the patronage which might have been his, had 
he entered office. I have more than once seen men go out of a 
government on friendly terms with its chief ; but after they left, 
they could not forget the power and position they once had 
held , they seemed always to feel that they should possess some 
of the official privileges and relations they had enjoyed before. 
When this proved impracticable, their feelings were apt to change, 
and their friendship cooled. Something lik^ this occurred with 
Stewart. 

I went out of the country in May, 1869, and returned in the 



CABINET-MAKING. j5q 

next September. On arriving at New York I went to Mr. 
Stewart's great " store," as I had been used to do before Grant 
was President, and spent an hour with him in private talk. I 
was amazed at the tone of his conversation ; he did not expect, he 
said, to enjoy the influence he had once anticipated, but even the 
few favors he asked had been withheld. The personal friends he 
had expected to advance were overlooked, or their claims 'belittled, 
if not ignored. Judge Hilton, his life-long associate and intimate, 
he had hoped, would be appointed Collector of New York, and a 
relative of his own wife he wanted made Consul at Havre. The 
Collectorship was gone irretrievably to another, and instead of 
Havre, his relative was offered Bordeaux. He wanted me to repre- 
sent this to the Government. But the Government was made up ; 
the carriage was full ; the train had started, and those who had 
not succeeded in entering, could hardly expect to be treated like 
regular passengers. Stewart was out in the cold. He saw the 
President occasionally after this, and entertained him when he 
came to New York ; but their intimacy was at an end. 



CHAPTER XX. 

GRANT IN SOCIETY. 

GRANT was a plain man, but those are greatly mistaken 
who suppose that he was a common one. His early 
life he has himself described as that of plain people at the 
West fifty or sixty years ago. He received, however, the 
advantages of West Point and its associations, and officers 
of the army in those days were considered eligible to any 
company. At St. Louis he married into a family that held 
itself as high as any in the old society of that semi-Southern 
city ; a society which was undoubtedly at that time provincial 
and narrow ; its members had seen or known little of any 
world but their own, but the feeling they had that their posi- 
tion was equal to any gave them a certain distinction of 
bearing that nothing else could confer. It was not a highly 
educated society, and resembled in some points the squire- 
archy of England that Macaulay describes ; elevated in feel- 
ing though contracted in acquirement, and if over-conscious 
of its own consequence, nevertheless never meeting anybody 
of more consequence than its own members. In this circle 
Grant obtained a knowledge of the sentiments and pre- 
judices that are by some supposed to be characteristic only 
of gentlemen. Many of these he shared by nature, others he 
acquired, but others he always repudiated. 

lie was, as all the world knows, simple in his tastes and 
habits, and at one time unacquainted with many of the 
etiquettes and requirements of an artificial society; not a few 
of which, indeed, he disliked after he became familiar with 

(I/O) 



GRANT IN SOCIETY 



171 



them. Forms and ceremonies were always distasteful to 
him, and though he complied with such as his position ren- 
dered unavoidable, he escaped from them in private as speed- 
ily and as effectually as possible. But the very simplicity of 
taste and feeling, the plainness of manner that he preserved 
in his extraordinary elevation, were proof of a native and 
genuine refinement. 

When he arrived at the capital to receive the command 
of the armies he was shy and reserved in general company : 
of course never timid, but he was aware of his deficiencies 
in social knowledge, and the consciousness made him con- 
strained and sometimes awkward under the honors and con- 
gratulations that were heaped upon him. But this very 
awkwardness in the Conqueror of Vicksburg had a certain 
charm. It indicated an absence of conceit, a lack of pre- 
tence, and a modesty almost unexampled in a man of his 
achievements, and showed how sweet and gentle a nature 
lay beneath the sterner qualities which had won his battles 
and his fame. 

He always desired, however, to conform to the require- 
ments of whatever place he was called upon to fill, and was 
now quite willing to perform his social duties. I accom- 
panied Mrs. Grant when she made her first visit to the 
White House, over which she was afterward to preside, and 
General Grant was greatly pleased to have the visit paid. 
It was at an afternoon reception held by Mrs. Lincoln, and 
Lincoln himself was present. The President had never met 
Mrs. Grant, and at first he did not hear her name ; he was 
allowing her to pass with the customary bow that every one 
receives, but I repeated, " Mrs. General Grant, Mr. Presi- 
dent"; and the tall, ungainly man looked down upon his 
visitor with infinite kindness beaming from his ugly, historic 
face ; then placed both his hands on Mrs. Grant's and 
welcomed her more than warmly. He asked about the 
General, and himself presented her to Mrs. Lincoln. The 



j - 2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

mistress of the White House was also gracious; she invited 
Mrs. Grant to visit the conservatories, and desired me to 
show them to the lady who was destined herself to dispense 
the courtesies of the nation in the same Executive Cham- 
ber. On our way out several great political women seemed 
inclined to patronize the Western General's wife; not, of 
course, offensively, but still they acted as they would hardly 
have behaved among or toward themselves. But Mrs. Grant 
at once detected the suggestion of superiority in their court- 
esies, and asserted herself delicately but skillfully. When 
they wanted to introduce fine ladies to her in the lobbies 
of the White House, she regretted that her carriage was 
waiting, but she would be happy to receive the ladies at her 
hotel; and when they offered seats in their boxes at the 
play, evidently in order to be seen with the wife of the 
General-in-Chief, she politely indicated that a box had already 
been secured for her ; and for this she afterward selected 
her own company. 

Her influence, of course, affected her great husband. 
He had constantly the suggestions of a woman who under- 
stood other women, and who knew instinctively what would 
be said of him and to him, as well as what she wanted him 
to say and do in return. Naturally she was anxious about 
the appearance he made in what is called "society." He 
had been ushered all at once into the most distinguished 
and exacting circles; he would be watched and criticized 
as well as welcomed and admired; and with a feminine 
insight she comprehended both the petty craft and the 
important ambitions that underlie so many of the ceremonies 
of official life at Washington as well as in aristocratic capi- 
tals. When Grant was overmodest, or willing to let himself 
be passed by, there was always the mentor to caution and 
urge and stimulate and advise; and sometimes the mentor 
needed. 

I recall an instance in which I contended for a while 



GRANT IN SOCIETY. ^3 

against Mrs. Sprague, the daughter of Chief-Justice Chase. 
Everybody in Washington, Cabinet Ministers, foreign envoys, 
Senators, even the Judges of the Supreme Court, hurried 
to call on General Grant after his brilliant successes in the 
war; the ordinary Washington etiquette of visiting was 
broken clown for him. But the Chief-Justice did not call. 
He considered himself the second person in the country, 
the next after the President in position, as under ordinary 
circumstances he certainly would have been. Besides this 
he was an aspirant for the Presidency and unwilling to admit 
Grant's precedence in any way. • Mrs. Sprague spoke to me 
of the matter at a dance at General Grant's house. She, 
as a Senator's wife, had called upon Mrs. Grant, but she 
thought General Grant should call on the Chief-Justice. I, 
however, tried hard to keep the General from paying the 
first visit. Like all staff officers I magnified the conse- 
quence of my chief, and I was younger then and had not 
seen the preposterous regard for precedence at European 
courts ; perhaps in such matters I was not so good a demo- 
crat as studying a real aristocracy has made me since. At 
any rate I put every obstacle in the way of the visit. But 
one afternoon General Grant was driving and stopped to 
call on the Chief-Justice. The visit was instantly returned, 
and the General and Mrs. Grant were asked to dinner; so 
Mrs. Sprague triumphed. I always suspected that the Gen- 
eral made the visit with malice prepense, for he often used 
to say, "Badeau, you think too much of these things," and ' 
he would pretend to scold. Once or twice he was in earnest 
when he thought matters were carried too far. 

Nevertheless he conformed to many observances which 
at first he had found irksome as well as unusual. It was 
some little time before he consented to wear an evening 
coat, and the white tie especially was a disagreeable novelty. 
But he soon discovered that he made himself more conspic- 
uous by avoiding the dress that others wore than by adopt- 



j-, GRANT IN PEACE. 

ing it ; and when he ascertained the importance attributed 
to visits in the official and high political world in which he 
lived, he became anxious that they should be paid and 
returned punctiliously. In time it was he who urged Mrs. 
Grant to make her calls, and those who did not know would 
hardly believe how particular he grew about placing people 
at dinner. Not that he regarded these points as important, 
but others did, whom he was unwilling to neglect or to 
offend. 

So too about his parties. He was always willing to open 
his house, and wanted no one left out whom it was proper to 
invite. He had indeed a genuine liking for society; not only 
because wherever he went he was the chief and the idol, 
though this might make any one fond of the world; but he 
was social by nature. He not only had a pleasure in the 
company of his intimates, not only enjoyed the conversation 
of important men ; but he liked to look at pretty girls and to 
listen to the talk of clever women. For a long time, how- 
ever, he was not ready in replying; he had little small talk, 
and could not make conversation without a theme ; but he 
observed closely under his mask of silence, and I always 
relished his criticisms of people and manners. He gossiped 
very genially, and observed little points of behavior and their 
significance as acutely as many of long experience in what 
is called "the world." I had a great deal to do with his 
early social career. I was very much at his house and his 
table before he became President ; I dispensed the invitations 
to his receptions, and went with him to dinners and parties 
innumerable in half the cities of the Union. I stood by him 
at public receptions when thousands shook him by the hand, 
and every man put all his enthusiasm and all his patriotism 
into a single grasp, until Grant's arm became swollen and 
lam eks, and the newspapers published a caricature of 

" The hand we shook so often." Sometimes in the crowd 
the aides-de-camp thrust out their hands and saved him many 




•Mil BOY STOOD ON THE BURNING DECK. 



GRANT IN SOCIETY. jy$ 

a squeeze. He possessed the " royal " memory of faces, and 
when at his own house or headquarters any of the millions 
called whom he had met before, he always remembered the 
names which we who had stood beside him were often unable 
to recall. 

For years his unwillingness to make a speech was curious. 
When he was nominated for the Presidency, he declared he 
had neither the power of public speaking nor the disposition 
to acquire it. In the long series of ovations that followed 
him everywhere after the close of the war not more than two 
or three words were ever extorted from him in reply to 
encomiums and even adulation such as few men have ever 
heard addressed to themselves. I was once traveling with 
him by railroad during the height of his early popularity. 
Wherever the train stopped it was surrounded by ardent and 
patriotic throngs. His silence had now become celebrated, 
and a woman in the crowd cried out, " I want to see the man 
that lets the women do all the talking." 

At another time his youngest son, Jesse, then a boy of 

only seven years, came out on the platform when the cries 

for a "speech " were loudest and his father was as silent as 

the Sphynx. The lad looked first at the mass of enthusiastic 

people before him and then at the great soldier by his side, 

and inquired, " Papa, why don't you speak to them ? " But 

Grant remained mute and Jesse at last cried out : " I can 

make.a speech, if papa can't." The shouts instantly went 

up; "A speech from Jesse ! A speech from Jesse ! " Then 

there was a hush, and the child began in his treble voice, but 

without a shade of the embarrassment his father would have 

felt, 

"The boy stood on the burning deck." — 

Jesse made another speech during the same summer that 
was even more felicitous. Grant and his family were at the 
farm near St. Louis where Mrs. Grant's father resided. One 



j„ 6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

hot day after the two o'clock dinner, when everybody was 
out on the lawn, Jesse mounted a haystack and exclaimed : 
"I'll show you how papa makes a speech." Grant himself 
laughed, and we all went up to the haystack. Then Jesse 
made a bow (which his father would not have done), and 
began : "Ladies and gentlemen, — I am very glad to see you ; 
I thank you very much. Good night." Everyone laughed, 
but Grant blushed up to the eyes. I don't think he relished 
the imitation at all; it was too close. But Jesse was the 
baby, and we talked about something else. 

Years afterward I thought of this scene in Missouri when 
I heard Grant at a great table in the Guildhall at London 
address a brilliant company in felicitous language that evoked 
cheers of admiration from some of the acutest critics of 
eloquence in the world. For he certainly acquired the art 
of putting one or two appropriate thoughts into fitting lan- 
guage on such occasions in as high degree as any one I ever 
listened to. His replies were models not only of terse and 
modest expression, but of epigrammatic force and fluent wit, 
timely in suggestiveness, personal in application, and almost 
always .conveying a wise as well as graceful sentiment 
Indeed, the shyness and awkwardness that were so apparent 
at the beginning of his career had passed completely away 
' before the end. Perhaps a little lingered until he became 
President, but the sense of the greatness of his position that 
came to him then took away all shyness. He was not only 
the first wherever he went, but the Chief of the State, and 
he felt that the Government was upon his shoulders. There 
was no personal vanity implied in maintaining or even in 
asserting such a dignity. In small things as well as great 
this feeling was apparent. He never entered the street-cars 
while he was President, although often before he had morti- 
fied his staff and his family by using the democratic convey- 
ance ; he was careful whom he visited, and regarded etiquette 
scrupulously in this matter; he selected the company and 



GRANT IN SOCIETY. 1 yy 

arranged the precedence at his dinners, frequently disap- 
pointing relatives and intimate friends who saw themselves 
displaced on public occasions for public dignitaries, though 
in his private life he returned to his former associates. 

During the first year of his Presidency I spent eight 
months on duty at the Executive Mansion, where, although 
I was no longer the official secretary, I had my own room 
and saw him with much of my old intimacy. I revised with 
him and for him his first annual message to Congress, and 
Cabinet Ministers came to me to have passages inserted 
which they did not venture themselves to propose. Thus I 
watched the growth of the new manner. I observed a 
greater dignity of feeling, a conscious and intentional gravity, 
an absence of that familiar, almost jocular mood which once 
had been so frequent. And yet he did not forget, much less 
repel, his former friends. They were what they had always 
been to him, just as worthy, perhaps just as intimate as ever, 
and the very few were certainly as dear; but he was the 
President. 

The great changes, however, were more apparent later. 
In the second year of his Presidency I was made Consul- 
General at London, and I saw him afterward on only two or 
three occasions during a short visit to this country until the 
close of his last Administration. In this interval had come 
all the storm of calumny that burst upon him, all the anxieties 
of the last sad year of his official life, all the falsity of 
friends, the attacks upon his honor, the injury he received 
from the association of those who used and abused his name 
and his friendship for their own purposes. Besides all this 
there was of course the increase of years, the long occupancy 
of the highest place, the weight of national cares, the famil- 
iarity with autnority. I met him on the steamer that 
brought him to Liverpool, and saw him first in the captain's 
cabin, where he was waiting for me, alone. He threw his 
arms around me — and I kissed him. He was my chief, my 



I7 g GRANT IN PEACE. 

General, my friend. From that moment dated a new inti- 
macy, closer than the old. I was with him incessantly during 
his stay in England. He wrote at once a telegram to the 
Government asking that I might be permitted to accompany 
him, but I changed the message and put it in my own name, 
so that he who had been President should not be placed in 
the position of soliciting favors from his successor. 

But with all my intimacy I noticed now a broader man 
in manner and character. He was far more conscious ; he 
understood himself better; he knew his powers; he knew 
what he wanted to do and say under all circumstances. He 
was a greater man than the one I had left in America 
seven years before. I was especially struck with his poise 
in the new situations into which he was thrown. No one 
had anticipated the great popular enthusiasm that welcomed 
him everywhere in England ; but he was as calm and undis- 
turbed as of old, ready to receive and acknowledge the ova- 
tion, for such it was, gratified deeply, but not elated. His 
fluency of speech amazed me. He had learned the art since 
I had met him last. 

In his association on more than equal terms with the 
most distinguished Englishmen, at the dinners with dukes 
and Prime Ministers, at which he was always first, in the 
company of Princes and of the Queen, he preserved his com- 
iure. The etiquette was of course unfamiliar to him, but 
he advised himself of it in advance, and then conformed just 
so far as he thought proper and dignified in his position, but 
no further. He was in no way neglectful of ceremonies, far 
less offensive, but he did not forget that he was a republican, 
nor that he had been a President. He said everywhere that 
the compliments paid to him were meant for the nation that 
he represented, which was a very proud sort of humility. 
But it was no assumption in him to assume that he reprej 
nted America. He remained as simple as ever in his 
bearing, and still almost plain, but he was seldom awkward or 



GRANT IN SOCIETY. I yg 

embarrassed now. He was able to criticise Queen Victoria's 
manner, and he declared to me that he thought it uneasy. 
He said her Majesty seemed too anxious to put him at his 
ease, and he implied that the anxiety was unnecessary. 
With the President of the French Republic, Marshal Mac- 
Mahon, he was on delightful terms. They walked up and 
down the Champs Elysees arm in arm, Grant talking English 
and MacMahon French, for each understood the other's Ian. 
guage, though unable to speak it. He received the first 
visit from the King of the Belgians, and asked, as any one 
else might with an equal, when he and Mrs. Grant could pay 
their respects to the Queen. I was present at the interview, 
and thought of Galena and the neighbors there of this man 
who was exchanging visits with sovereigns. On this occa- 
sion he was exact in his etiquette ; he went himself to the 
door of the room, but directed me to wait upon the King to 
his carriage. But his Majesty would not permit this atten- 
tion, and said peremptorily that I must not descend the 
staircase. I remembered the story of Louis XIV and Lord 
Stair, and replied that when the King commanded I could 
only obey. Grant approved my behavior. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 

GRANT always regarded the French occupation of Mex- 
ico and the establishment of the Empire of Maximilian 
as a part of the attempt to subvert our own Republic, and 
his indignation at the course of Napoleon III on this conti- 
nent, was both active and outspoken even during the war. 
I often heard him declare at City Point that as soon as we 
had disposed of the Confederates we must begin with the 
Imperialists ; and when the Rebellion was actually crushed, 
it became his first object to insure the expulsion of the 
French from the neighboring country. On the first day of 
the Grand Review at Washington in 1865, he hurried Sheri- 
dan off to Texas, not leaving him time to witness the conclu- 
sion of the pageant, and gave him secret orders to watch the 
course of events on the Rio Grande. 

Grant, indeed, at this time, hoped that Johnson could be 
induced to issue a peremptory demand for the withdrawal of 
the French, and in case of non-compliance, that he would 
at once offer armed assistance to the Republicans. With 
this hope the General-in-Chief moved a large body of troops 
to the frontier, and Sheridan understood that he was not to 
be over-cautious about provoking the Imperial forces on the 
other side. 

But the Government of Johnson did not share Grant's 
views. It is probable that the President himself might have 

11 brought to concur in them, but Seward was entirely 
opposed to the course that Grant recommended. It was the 

(180) 



THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. I 3 I 

difference between the soldier and the diplomatist. I 
was for prompt action, peremptory demands, menaces, and, if 
necessary, war, though he did not believe that war would be 
necessary. Seward hoped to accomplish the same object by 
waiting for events, by skillful management, by diplomatic 
notes and protocols. Besides this, Seward may have thought 
the province his own, that he was entitled to bring about the 
result in his own way and achieve the triumph that belonged 
to his own Department. At any rate he did his best to 
thwart the plan proposed by Grant, and as he was in the 
Cabinet, and besides in harmony with the President's domes- 
tic policy, he won the day. His views finally controlled the 
action of the Government. It was some little while, how- 
ever, before the contest was decided, and when Grant first 
found the influence of the Secretary hostile, he was not at 
all discouraged, although displeased. Since he could not 
have the assistance of Seward, he resorted to means of his 
own devising. For he was very much in earnest, and 
believed that dilatory diplomacy might result in the establish- 
ment of an empire in Mexico. 

Three months after the close of the war he sent General 
Schofield, in whose ability and discretion he had great confi- 
dence, on a peculiar errand. Schofield was nominally 
ordered to make an inspection of the troops on the Rio 
Grande, but he was furnished with a leave of absence with 
permission to visit Mexico, This had been granted with the 
concurrence of the President, who had full knowledge of the 
object in view. 

At the same time Grant wrote to Sheridan that there 
must be a large amount of captured ordnance in his com- 
mand, as well as "similar articles " left there by discharged 
Union soldiers. Sheridan was directed to send none of these 
"articles" to the North. "Rather place them," said Grant, 
" convenient to be permitted to go into Mexico, if they can 
be got into the hands of the defenders of the only govern- 
ment we recognize in that country." He continued : 



, , GRANT IN PEACE. 

"I h I ieral Schofield may go with orders to receive these 
anL [f he does not I know it will meet with general 

app] t him have them, if contrary orders are not received, 

termination on the part of the people of the United 
nd 1 think myself safe in saying on the part of the Presi- 
it an empire shall not be established on this conti- 
nent aid of foreign bayonets. A war on the part of the 
t . be avoided, if possible, but it will be better to 
hen but little aid given to the Mexicans will 
:i, than to have in prospect a greater war sure to 
ne if delayed until the empire is established. We want, then, 
id the Mexicans without giving cause of war between the United 
and France. Between the would-be empire of Maximilian 
United States all difficulty can easily be settled by observ- 
neutrality that has been observed toward us 
5. This is a little indefinite as a letter of 
• uctions to lie governed by. I hope with this you may receive 
»e instructions in more positive terms. With a knowledge of 
the facts before you, however, that the greatest desire is felt to see 
the Liberal Government restored in Mexico, and no doubt exists 
of the strict justice of our right to demand this and enforce the 
land with the whole strength of the United States, and your 
nt uives you a basis of action that will aid you. I 
will nd in a few days that you be directed to discharge all 
the men you think can be spared from the Department of Texas, 
where they are, giving transportation to their homes to all who 
::. ) at aware that existing orders permit dis- 
■ nit! in their arms and accoutrements at low rates, 

I< livered to Schofield to cany to Sheridan. 

1- v. on tl ■ 25th of July, 1865, that Grant wrote: "It is 

lination of the people of the United States 

-hall not be established on this continent by 

•nets"; and on the 6th of September 

rd wrote to Mr. Bigelow, our Minister to 

: "We do not insist or claim that Mexico and the 



THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 



183 



other States on the American continent shall adopt the polit- 
ical institutions to which we are so earnestly attached, but 
we do hold that the people of those countries are to exercise 
the freedom of choosing and establishing institutions like our 
own, if they are preferred." The difference in tone and 
language between the soldier and the statesman was indi- 
cative of the difference in the means they desired to employ 
— to accomplish, nevertheless, the same end. 

Grant did not write to Schofield again for nearly a year, 
but on the 24th of March, 1866, he said to that officer: 

" I have never written to you since your departure, for two 
reasons : First, because I was afraid to send through the mails, 
lest the letter should fall into the hands of the French authorities. 
Second, because I could not say anything which would be agree- 
able to Mr. Seward, and did not like, therefore, to send by his 
mail. I might add a third reason and say that Mr. S. keeps the 
whole question between the United States and Mexico so befogged 
that I know nothing really to write upon the subject that you do 
not learn from the papers of the country. It looks to me very 
much as if Mr. Seward's policy was to hold the Government and 
let the Imperial establishment take its chances for success or fail- 
ure. If he has a partiality in the matter, I think it leans to 
Imperial success. In this matter, however, I may do him injustice. 
One thing is certain, however, with the present policy, and it looks 
as if it was to continue, the friends of the Liberal Government of 
Mexico can do nothing to help it. Under these circumstances I 
would say there is no necessity for your remaining longer abroad, 
unless your instructions require it. ... If I was to try to 
give you any positive information in regard to our relations with 
Mexico, or with the man who keeps troops there, I could not do so. 
I could say nothing more consoling to the Emperor of the French 
than what I have here stated, nor nothing more distasteful to him 
than that the American people are united in their determination 
that his reign on this continent shall cease. Another election 
will probably bring this latter fact clear before his vision. I 
regret that his expulsion had not been the closing scene in the 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

• through which the country has just passed, and 
which he contributed largely to protract.'' 

It will be noticed that Grant speaks of the expulsion 
of the "Emperor of the French," evidently regarding the 
potentate as only the tool of his great prototype 
in France. 

On the 20th of July, 1866, Grant wrote to Sheridan: 

dispatch relative to selling the arms at Brownsville to 
the I referred by me to the President strongly recom- 

mended. I also saw the President in person about it, who said: 
•Why can't we let them have them?' The subject will be up 
binet to-day. and as Seward is absent. I am in hopes 
it will be decided to let them go. Whether this is done or not the 
Liberals are now getting arms. I got the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury to give clearances for a large lot of arms for Brownsville, for 
export beyond the limits of the United States. Some are now on 
the way, and others will follow. There has been entirely too 
much lukewarmness about Washington in Mexican affairs. I am 
afraid that it may yet cause us trouble. It looks to me very much 
n was going to settle the European quarrel in his 
. thus making himself stronger than ever before. If he 
11 lie not compel Austria to sustain the Imperial Govern- 
I v. iih such aid as he will give? This looks to me to be the 
dang prehend. You and I should, and we have done it, 

aid the Liberal cause by giving them all the encouragement we 
A Minister to the Liberal Government has been confirmed, 
but he is idling about Washington, waiting for Mr. S. to give him 
hi> instriii : i- .n>. '' 

I the 30th of July Grant wrote again to Sheridan: 

the repeal of our neutrality laws I am in hopes of 

LUthority to dispose of all our surplus 

munition within your command to the Liberals of Mexico. 

powerful practical ally of Louis Napoleon, in my 

opinion, but 1 am strongly in hope that his aid will do the 

Un the i)th of October he said: 



THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 



I8 5 



"Enclosed I send you two letters furnished me by the Mexican 
Minister. One is from the agent of the Liberal Government of 
Mexico, and the other is an intercepted letter fully explaining 
itself. How far the agent may judge the objects of §anta Anna 
and Mr. Seward correctly I do not know. But I do not believe 
that either of these parties is favorable to the Liberal cause. My 
own opinion is that the interest of the United States and duty is 
to see that foreign interference with the affairs of this continent 
are put an end to. There is but one Government in Mexico that 
has ever been recognized by the L T nited States, and we must 
respect the claims of that Government and advance its interests 
in every way we can. It is probable that you may have an oppor- 
tunity of judging the designs of Santa Anna should he attempt to 
send a force to the Rio Grande. Should his designs be inimical 
to the Government of Mexico with which we are at peace, the 
same duty in obedience to our own neutrality laws compels us to 
prevent the fitting out of expeditions hostile to that Government 
that existed in the case of the Fenian movement against our 
Northern neighbor. There is but one party, one Government in 
Mexico, whose complaints or wishes have claim to respect from 
us. No policy has been adopted by our Government which 
authorizes us to interfere directly on Mexican soil with that coun- 
try, but there is nothing that I know of to prevent the free passage 
of people or material going through our territory to the aid of the 
recognized Government. Our neutrality should prevent our allow- 
ing the same thing when the object is to make war upon that 
Government, so long as we are at peace with it." 

It would be hard for the most accomplished doctor of laws 
to turn the neutrality acts both ways more skillfully to suit his 
own purposes. Yet who can contest the logic of Grant's 
reasoning or the justice of his conclusions ? 

But however profoundly he disapproved of Seward's 
course, Grant had no desire to criticise or censure a member 
of the Government before the country. He had a soldier's 
regard for official propriety, and besides he could not but 
entertain a genuine admiration for many points in Seward's 



GRANT IN TEACE. 

character as well as for his public services. On the 31st of 
ber he wrote again to Sheridan : 

nee the publication of your letter of the 23d inst., to Brevet 
Igwick, it may be possible that you or I may 
ailed on for a copy of the instructions under which you gave 
such instructions. My letter of the 9th of October contained some 
s which it would not be well to give to the public, and were 
fidential, though it gives authority for just the instructions you 
, General Sedgwick, barring perhaps calling Maximil- 
ian a buccaneer. I have thought it proper to renew my letter to 
you for official record, leaving out the objectionable passages 
[those referring to Seward]. Do not understand me as shrinking 
from the responsibility of the letter I wrote to you. On the 
trary, I am delighted with your letter. It will have a great 
ct in sustaining the cause of Juarez both by encouraging his 
adherents and by discouraging other factions. In view of the fact 
that Max. and the French are about going out of Mexico, it might 
:n well to have left out the term buccaneer. If, however, 
the explanation is called for, I will be glad even of the use of that 
expression." 

Thus the matter dragged along for nearly two years, 
:it doing everything in his power to hasten the result at 
which he was aiming, and Seward opposing Grant's measures 
if not his object, in every possible way. In conversation with 
and other leaders and makers of opinion Grant 
tly sought to create a public feeling in favor of 
landing the withdrawal of the French. I remember on 
One n, at a reception given to him at the Union 

1 ■ Club in New York, he so far departed from his cus- 

tom and did violence to his ordinary inclination as to force 
himself to utter a few words in public, almost a speech, 
Strongly he desired the intervention of our 
rnment. 

lintry, however, did not respond very ardently to 
these utterances, and I have no doubt now that Seward's 



THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. j$y 

policy was more in accord with the general sentiment. The 
nation did not feel so keenly as Grant on the subject, nor did 
it apprehend the danger that he saw in delay. There was 
a prevalent belief that Louis Napoleon's object in Mexico 
had been frustrated when Lee surrendered, and that the 
French were certain to withdraw if allowed to do so without 
unnecessary humiliation. Indeed, had the nation been polled 
the majority would probably have endured the establishment 
of a monarchy in Mexico rather than have engaged at that 
time in another war. 

Nevertheless the departure of the French and the down- 
fall of Maximilian were doubtless accelerated by the urgency 
of Grant and the knowledge that Napoleon had of Grant's 
popularity and influence. The French Minister to the 
United States, the Marquis de Montholon, was married to 
an American, and doubtless reported the situation to his 
master. Grant took good care that the envoy should know 
his views. I visited the Montholons frequently, and he 
instructed me to bring up the subject often and to be explicit 
in expressing his opinions. 

In 1867 the French were finally withdrawn and Maximilian 
was left to his fate. He was speedily captured, and then a 
determined effort was made to save his life. Foreign Govern- 
ments addressed our own on the subject, and Mr. Seward 
made a formal application to the Mexicans in the ex-Emperor's 
behalf. But the Liberal Government took the ground that 
Imperial pretenders must learn that they carried their lives 
in their hands when they attempted to overthrow the Mexi- 
can Republic, and that the traitor was as guilty who mounted 
a throne as if he had endeavored to overturn one. Maximil- 
ian was tried like any other individual who sought to subdue 
the institutions of the State ; he was found guilty and shot — 
a lesson that usurpers will long remember. Grant concurred 
in the abstract justice and the political propriety of the act. 
Attempts were made to induce him to recommend clemency, 



j 33 GRANT IN PEACE. 

for his influence would have been very great with the Mexi- 
cans, who knew how ardently he had supported their cause, 
but he sternly refused to interfere. Indeed, his indirect 
advice to the Mexican Minister at Washington, doubtless 
communicated to his Government, was in favor of meting 
the same punishment to a crowned offender as to humbler 
culprits. I state this on General Grant's authority. 

He never forgave the Bonapartes. When he was in Eng- 
land and a guest at my house, he received an invitation from 
Mr., now Sir Algernon Borthwick, the proprietor of The 
Morning Post, a man of political and social importance, and 
who had been a staunch friend of Napoleon III. The party 
was a breakfast in the country to meet the Prince Imperial ; 
Grant declined the invitation politely ; he said to me that he 
was unwilling to show any courtesy of a significant character 
to the son of the man who had so injured this country in the 
moment of its greatest peril. I went to the party, for Borth- 
wick had always been civil to me, and when I was presented 
to the Prince he inquired very courteously about General 
Grant. On my return I repeated his remarks, for I always 
told my chief whatever was said to me about him, of what- 
ever character ; but he was in no degree mollified. He was 
never good at concealing emotions of a harsher character, 
and disliked to the last all hollow courtesies. The Empress 
heard some of his criticisms and retaliated in kind. 

In the last months, almost the last weeks, of Grant's life, 
when he was closing his eyes upon the dissensions and 
rancors of this world, after he had forgiven the South and 
spoken kindly even of Rosecrans and Jefferson Davis, he 
still retained an implacable dislike for Louis Napoleon's acts 
and character. In the concluding pages of his Memoirs — 
written under the very shadow of the scythe of the Destroyer 
— may be found these lines : 

"I did not blame France for her part in the scheme to erect a 
monarchy upun the ruins of the Mexican Republic. That was the 



THE FRENCH IN MEXICO. 

scheme of one man without genius or merit. He had su< i eeded in 
stealing the Government of his country and made a change in its 
form against the wishes and interests of his countrymen. 1 1 
to play the part of the first Napoleon without the ability to sustain 
that role. He sought by new conquests to add to his empii 
his glory; but the signal failure of his scheme of conquest was the 
precursor of his own overthrow. . . . The third Napoleon 
could have no claim to having done a good or just act.'* 



CHAPTER XXII. 

CRANT AND SEWARD. 

THERE was a positive antagonism between Grant and 
Seward. Their characters were as unlike as their poli- 
cies and achievements. During the last months of the war 
Seward paid a visit at Grant's headquarters at City Point, 
and while there he told me a story which illustrates more than 
one point in his character. He was describing the alarm and 
anxiety of the North in the autumn of 1864. For months 
Grant had accomplished nothing in front of Richmond ; Hood 
had forced Sherman to retrace his steps from Atlanta, and 
Early had nearly captured Washington. The opponents of 
the Government at the North made the most of the situation 
for political purposes. The elections were approaching, and 
a Cabinet council was held. It was necessary, Seward said, 
to throw something overboard in order to save the ship, and 
Emancipation was to be the Jonah. He was selected, he told 
me, to make the sacrifice, and proceeded to Auburn, where he 
delivered the speech which many will remember, re-opening 
the whole question of slavery and Emancipation, when the 
States should return to the Union. "When the insurgents," 
he said, "shall have disbanded their armies and laid down 
their arms, the war will instantly cease; and all the war meas- 
ures then existing, including those which affect slavery, will 
cease also; and all the moral, economical, and political ques- 
tions, as well questions affecting slavery as others, which shall 
then be existing between individuals and States and the Fed- 
eral Government, whether they arose before the Civil War 

(190) 



< ■- 




SI W \K1> ANNOUNCING VICTORS 



GRANT AND SEWARD. , (] 

began, or whether they grew out of it, will by force of the 
Constitution, pass over to the arbitrament of courts of law, 
and to the councils of legislation." So spoke the Secretary 
of State a year and a half after the proclamation of Emanci- 
pation had been made. 

A few days later he returned to Washington, and soon 
the news was brought of Sheridan's victory at Winchester. 
Seward took the telegram to the President. It was lonj 
midnight, and Lincoln came to the door of his bedroom in his 
nightgown. There he held the candle while the Secretary of 
State read to him the great intelligence. The President was 
delighted, of course, at the victory, but Seward exclaimed : 
"And what, Mr. President, is to become of me?" He told me 
this story, I suppose, to illustrate his spirit of self-sacrifice, 
but when I repeated it to Grant the soldier looked at the act 
in a different light. He thought the sacrifice of prii 
should not have been made, and was shocked that Seward 
could have thought of himself at such a crisis. But Seward 
believed in sacrificing even political principle to the su< 
of a great cause, or the salvation of a country. He said to 
me at this time: " Nations' have never more virtue than just 
enough to save themselves." 

Grant's course under somewhat similar circumstances was 
different. He often told me of the pressure brought to induce 
him to sign what was known as the Inflation Act. Personal 
and political friends of importance assured him that his r 
would be fatal to Republican success at the polls, and although 
his judgment was opposed to the measure, he finally wrote out 
a message approving the bill. He even read the mess 
his Cabinet, but in writing and reading it the weakness of his 
forced reasoning became more apparent than ever. He could 
not bring himself to do violence to his own convictions. That 
night he tore up the message and wrote another which con- 
tained the veto that forever defeated Inflation. 

Each of these men had in his own way accomplished great 






192 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



things for the State. Seward was an adroit and intellectual 
strategist, a man born with the instincts and used to the arts 
of diplomacy ; a statesman who had aimed at the highest 
place, but when he failed in his aim, had humbled himself to 
take a secondary post, in which he conceived and carried out 
an international policy for his triumphant rival ; a man who 
after the war and the success of the principles and the party 
with whom and for whom he had battled half a lifetime, found 
himself suddenly in the Cabinet of a Southerner determined 
to bring the defeated Southerners back to the position and 
the power they had enjoyed before they rebelled ; and Seward 
not only acquiesced in the design, but aided it with all the 
skill and intellect he had once employed on the other side. 
There was nothing in such a character or career to attract or 
to assimilate with Grant, who was by nature blunt and plain 
in word and act ; a soldier to the core ; unused to bending 
when he could not break, and ignorant of any means to accom- 
plish his purposes but the most direct and forcible. Even in 
war lie had been less of a strategist than a fighter, and he car- 
ried the same characteristics into civil affairs. Indeed when- 
ever later in his political career he was induced by political 
associates to lay aside his own peculiar directness and attempt 
manoeuvring he failed. His ways were never those of diplo- 
macy, nor even of legitimate craft. The more of a technical 
politician he became, the less was his hold on the people, and 
the less the success he achieved. When he returned to his 
native straightforwardness and outspokenness his influence 
and popularity were regained. Such a man could not appre- 
ciate Johnson's Secretary of State. 

Seward had succeeded by temporizing and negotiating, 
by patience and subtle skill, by submitting to what was 
inevitable and obtaining whatever was attainable, in at first 
postponing, and at last preventing, the active intervention 
of England am! France in favor of the South during the 
War; and he hoped afterward to secure the withdrawal of 



GRANT AND SEWARD. 

the French from Mexico by the same means. But to Grant 
this seemed to indicate indifference to the result, and he 
finally came to believe that Seward was willing for Maxi- 
milian to remain. Here was their first open difference. 
They were antagonists apparently even in aim, and certainly 
in means and methods and manner. The consequence was 
not only a marked divergence of opinion, but on Grant's part, 
a coolness of feeling that lasted for years and was never 
entirely removed. But though Grant at times could hardly 
force himself to be civil, and disliked even to go to Seward's 
house, the courteous Secretary kept up his visits and his 
compliments. 

Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," attributes 
to Seward the conception of Johnson's entire scheme of 
restoring the States, but Grant never gave Seward credit 
for the plan. He thought it the child of Johnson's brain, 
developed by the situation in which he found himself) 
humble Southerner suddenly raised to a position in which 
he could dispense essential favors to those who had always 
seemed his superiors but now courted him for their own 
purposes. Grant in his "Memoirs" speaks of Johnson as a 
" President who at first aimed to revenge himself upon 
Southern men of better social standing than himself, but 
who still sought their recognition, and in a short time con- 
ceived the idea and advanced the proposition to become their 
Moses to lead them triumphantly out of all their difficulties." 
I remember once returning to him from the White House, 
and describing to him what I had seen; the antechamber 
of the tailor-President crowded with magnates of the South, 
Hunter and Richard Taylor and others of that sort, waiting 
for a chance to ask to be pardoned. 

Grant, like every other human being, was sometimes 
unjust in his judgments, and did not always allow the 
of the highest motives to those who opposed him. He 
thought Johnson was affected by the influences I have 

*3 



jn 4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

described, and that Seward for the sake of place and power 
followed in the political somersault. No word intimating a 
belief that Seward originated Johnson's policy ever escaped 
him in my hearing, either in the excited intercourse of the 
time or in the deliberate discussions of later years. 

It is needless to say that Grant thought Seward intel- 
lectual and able ; and of course he never dreamed of denying 
his patriotism ; but the genius of the one was so diametrically 
opposed to that of the other that Grant could not do justice 
to the considerations, whether of legitimate ambition or lofty 
statesmanship, that may have actuated Seward. He was 
too intensely himself to be sympathetic. He could not put 
himself into Seward's place. He could not understand how 
Seward could reverse the feelings and principles of a lifetime 
to remain in Johnson's Cabinet. He could not perceive that 
Seward, once the bugbear of the slave-holders, might take 
an exquisite pleasure in the thought that they owed their 
exemption from many misfortunes to the man they had so 
long and so bitterly reviled. 

But although Grant thought Seward only a follower of 
Johnson in the Reconstruction policy, he certainly believed 
that many of the devices of Johnson were due to Seward's 
suggestion. He did not think Johnson clever enough to 
initiate all the craft rjiat gave the country and Congress so 
much trouble and alarm. Many of the acutest arguments in 
defense of Johnson Grant thought were in reality perversions 
of Seward's intellect in an unworthy cause ; and the effort 
to send Grant to Mexico he always attributed to Seward. 
The conception was worthy of the diplomatic Secretary, to 
whom it would fall to carry out the device if it succeeded ; 
for if Grant had accepted the position pressed upon him he 
must have received his instructions from Seward, who had 
opposed and defeated Grant's Mexican policy. Those instruc- 
tions, in fact, were written out, and Seward once began to 
read them in Cabinet, but Grant refused to hear them. 



GRANT AND SEWARD. 

Even after this they were forwarded to Grant thi 
Secretary of War, but were finally turned over to Sherman. 
It would indeed have been a Machiavellian triumph to have 
got rid of Grant at that juncture in affairs at home and at 
the same time forced him to carry out Seward's policy in 
Mexico. 

But though, as I have said, Grant never got over his 
dislike of Seward's course, either in the Mexican matter or 
in the general policy of the Administration, Seward was 
determined not to quarrel with Grant. He was never person- 
ally conspicuous in the stratagems which Grant was obliged 
to contest, and even at the crisis of the relations between 
Grant and Johnson, when other Cabinet Ministers ra 
themselves on the side of the President, Seward contrived to 
write a letter not entirely unsatisfactory to his chief, while 
yet he refrained from giving the lie to Grant. Thus their 
relations, although after this period never intimate, were not 
absolutely interrupted. Some of Seward's admirers even 
proposed to Grant, when he became President-elect, to 
invite Seward to remain in the State Department! but he 
never entertained the idea. 

I remember a dinner at the house of Mr. Thornton, the 
British Minister, given after Grant's election, at which 
ard sat on the right of the host and Grant on the left ; and 
Seward remarked, as he took his seat, "After the 4th of 
March, General, you and I will be obliged to exchange p 
at table." But there were many even then who placed Gen- 
eral Grant above the Secretary of State, and Grant hi: 
in more important matters than rank or etiquette, w 
ing his own consequence. He had endeavored, as 1 
shown, to prevent the host who was then entertaining them 
from negotiating a treaty with Seward, and he had si 
successfully to lessen the influence of Seward's Minisl 
Mexico. 

Still the honors were divided. Seward had dc!v. 



!q6 grant in peace. 

Grant in what the soldier had so much at heart, — the forci- 
ble expulsion of Maximilian, accomplishing the overthrow of 
the empire by diplomatic means, though he risked, as Grant 
believed, the existence of the Mexican Republic ; but Seward 
himself was defeated in the great object of Johnson's Admin- 
istration, — the Reconstruction policy; and in this defeat 
Grant was the principal figure and instrument. Grant's 
election, indeed, was the seal of Seward's and Johnson's 
overthrow. Up to the last their differences continued. In 
sending Rosecrans to Mexico, Seward must have known the 
affront he offered Grant, and by the rejection of the Claren- 
don-Johnson Treaty, which Grant did so much to accomplish, 
the final effort of Seward's diplomacy was foiled. 

But, after all, both were patriots, both were indispensable 
to the salvation of the State. Grant's victories would have 
been useless, if not impossible, unless Seward's skill had 
stayed the hostile and impatient hands of England and 
France ; and Seward's diplomacy required Vicksburg and 
the Wilderness to be of any avail. As Lincoln once said to 
Sickles, when they were discussing the battle of Gettysburg, 
"There is glory enough to go all around." Nevertheless, it 
is well to tell the whole truth about great men in great 
emergencies. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

GRANT AND MOTLEY. 

THE beginning of Grant's intercourse with Motley was 
brought about through me. Mr. Motley made my 
acquaintance at Newport in 1868. He was visiting a man 
whom I did not know, but who was good enough to call on 
me and invite me to dinner; and I, like every one else, was 
charmed with the manner and conversation of the famous 
historian. General Grant was at that time a candidal 
the Presidency, and Motley had recently returned from 
Vienna, after his quarrel with Johnson and Seward. He 
was an enthusiastic admirer of Grant, and took a lively 
interest in my history of the General's campaigns, the first 
volume of which had lately appeared. During the ca 
he made an eloquent speech for Grant, and sent a copy to 
me at Galena, where I was spending the autumn with the 
General. We corresponded regularly after this, and A! 
sent frequent messages through me to the President 
whom he did not meet until December. After the election 
he passed some months in Washington, the guest of Samuel 
Hooper, of Boston, at whose house I met him frequently, 
as well as at that of Charles Sumner, with whom he 
extremely intimate. During this period he read and re- 
vised several manuscript chapters of my History of Grant. 

At the time of the inauguration it was understood t 
he was a candidate for the Austrian Mission, but aft, 
he was pressed by Sumner for the mission to England. Joh 
Jay, of New York, was a prominent rival, but Sumner' 

(197) 



jqS grant in peace. 

influence prevailed, and Motley received the appointment to 
London. I had done my best to speak well of him to the 
President, and General Grant informed me of his decision 
immediately after it was made, and allowed me to announce 
it to Motley. This was a great gratification to me, and of 
course Motley was delighted. He at once, however, begged 
me to remember that despite our intimacy and my known 
relations with General Grant he had never mentioned the 
subject of his appointment to me, nor had one of his family. 
I took care to say this to the President, who was peculiarly 
sensitive on such points. He had never urged his own 
qualifications or claims for any promotion, and he liked 
better the men who followed the same course with himself. 
A few days afterward I got a note from Motley asking me 
to call on him. During the interview he asked if I would be 
willing to take the position of Assistant Secretary of Lega- 
tion under him. He said he thought me entitled to a much 
higher place and would not have dreamed of offering me this 
if it had not been suggested to him, but that it would be a 
great pleasure to have me accompany him. I thanked him, 
but said the proposition was entirely unexpected and I could 
make no answer without consulting the President. I was at 
that time, as I have before stated, on duty at the Executive 
Mansion, in charge of a portion of General Grant's unofficial 
correspondence, and also engaged on my History of his Cam- 
paigns. I went direct to the President, who said the sugges- 
tion had come from himself. He had already told me that he 
meant before long to appoint me to one of the smaller 
European missions, but he preferred not to do this at once ; 
and he had thought as I was so warm a friend of Motley, it 
might be pleasant for me to accompany him and learn some- 
thing of diplomatic duty in advance, as well as obtain an 
agreeable introduction to English society. At any rate I 
could pass the summer in Europe and return whenever I 
chose and resume my place at the While House. I was also 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. 

told that though I was now offered the position of Assistant 
Secretary, I should be promoted to that of First Secretary as 
soon as I had familiarized myself with the duties. Of this 
last arrangement Mr. Motley was not informed. I accepted 
the appointment. 

Before the new Minister sailed he submitted an elaborate 
paper to the State Department which was doubtless in part 
drawn up by Mr. Sumner. This was proposed as the draft 
or basis of Motley's instruc^ons as envoy to England. The 
document was written in a spirit and tone that would have 
been highly offensive to England ; it was entirely unaccept- 
able to Mr. Fish and to General Grant, both of whom had 
conceived the idea of a pacific policy looking to an adjust- 
ment of our differences with England that might be agreeable 
to both nations. Mr. Gladstone had just come into power at 
the head of a liberal government, including such friends of 
the Union as Bright, Forster, and the Duke of Argyll ; and 
the American Administration thought it might make terms 
with these without assuming an offensive attitude. The 
"memoir" which Mr. Motley presented was therefore 
rejected. 

At this Mr. Sumner was very indignant. As Chairman 
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs he sup^ 
himself entitled to dictate, or at least control, the f 
policy of the Government, and he would indeed be able to 
thwart or advance it in an unusual degree. He had been a 
life-long intimate and personal friend of the Secretary of 
State, and Mr. Fish was inclined to strain a point to meet his 
views, or at least to preserve kindly relations with him. But 
Sumner was intolerant in temper, arbitrary in will, egotistical 
and conceited in sentiment, and domineering in manner. 
Mr. Fish, on the other hand, was stubborn, and po 
will as determined as Sumner's; he knew his r_ 
though always ready to accord those of his compc^ r 
subordinates, was equally resolute in maintaining his own. 



200 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Nevertheless, for the sake of old friendship and because of 
the important political and international interests at issue, he 
was far from intolerant at this crisis. General Grant was 
more inflexible. He had been used to finding subordinates 
obedient and others deferential ; and though Motley was 
not as yet at fault, Sumner's course both surprised and 
angered Grant. In a conversation with Fish before Motley 
sailed, Sumner declared that if his wishes could not be 
carried out, he would tell Mot^y to resign. This assump- 
tion of a right to dictate to the subordinates of the State 
Department almost provoked a rupture on the spot, and 
was received in a manner that did not encourage Sumner to 
renew or to carry out the threat. The deferred instructions 
to Mr. Motley were sent to the Minister in New York just 
before he sailed. He first read them on the voyage. 

I was to take the same steamer with Motley, and a few 
days before we started I asked the President if he had any 
particular or personal injunctions for me. I said I should be 
known to come direct from his side, and doubtless would be 
supposed to reflect his views, and I inquired if there was any 
tone in conversation which he would like me to assume. He 
replied at once : " Yes, I particularly wish you to say that I 
am anxious for a harmonious adjustment of our differences 
with England. I do not want any difficulty with that country, 
and will do ray best to prevent one. The two nations ought 
to be friends, and one object of my Administration is to 
secure such a friendship. I particularly do not intend to dis- 
pute the right that England had to acknowledge the belliger 
ency of the South. Say this in conversation constantly. 
Make opportunities to say that you know this is my position 
and that 1 authorize you to declare it." During the vox 
I repeated this conversation to Mr. Motley, for I had no idea 
of doing anything disloyal or even disagreeable to him ; but 
he at once desired me to say nothing on the subject in Eng- 
land. He declared that I should embarrass him greatly if I 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. OQ , 

assumed to discuss political matters at all, or to speak in 
any way for the President. I was naturally amazed that he- 
should revoke the order of the President, but I attributed 
this conduct to the extraordinary sensitiveness of Motley. 
He had shown in one or two instances a petty jealousy 
unworthy of him. I had intended to give a breakfast party 
before I left Washington and to invite the British Min- 
ister, Mr. Motley, Mr. Fish, and Mr. Sumner to meet the 
President, who had consented to come, but Motley made it 
a point that I should not give the party. lie said it would 
be unbecoming in me as Secretary of Legation to invite 
the President to meet the British Minister. lie did not 
feel that he could invite the Head of the State, and he 
did not wish his subordinate to do so. 

Mr. Motley did not show me his instructions on his 
arrival, nor did he discuss with me his intercourse with 
the Foreign Office on any of the points in dispute with 
the United States; but as Secretary I had access t<> the 
archives of the Legation and thus saw his instructs 
and read the account of Motley's first interview with I. 
Clarendon, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. I had not 
known in America of his difference with the Uc- 

partment, but I said at once to Mr. Moran, the Fii 
retary of Legation, that the Minister would be removed 
He had disobeyed his orders, and I knew that General 
Grant would not endure disobedience in a subordin 
Moran agreed with me as to the disobedient tley 

indeed had said far more than he had been ordered to 
say. He had been charged to do everything to cultivate 
friendly relations, to express a desire on the part -l the 
new Government to maintain an amicable feeling, and he- 
had instead recited the wrongs that England had inflicl 
and had done this in a menacing and almost oil ne 

which only the good temper of the British Government 
prevented it from resenting on the spot. Moran and I 



202 GRANT IN PEACE. 

talked over the matter. I was greatly grieved, for I was 
attached to Motley and wanted to see him succeed ; but I 
could not go to my superior and tell him that he was dis- 
obedient. He had not invited my suggestions, and I did 
not feel authorized to approach him on the subject. I felt 
all the more delicate because he knew so well my relations 
with General Grant. 

But I wrote at once to the President and told him that I 
thought he might be able to change Mr. Motley's course. I 
said the Minister was very susceptible to praise ; that he 
seemed to consider himself Mr. Sumner's Minister rather 
than that of the Government, but that this came perhaps 
from an excess of gratitude, because he thought he owed his 
appointment to Sumner ; and if he could be made to feel 
more pleasantly toward the Administration it might have an 
influence on his susceptible nature. I recited some things 
he had said and done which I thought the President would 
approve, and I urged him to write me a letter which I could 
show Motley commending these acts. General Grant at once 
complied with this suggestion.* 

But when the dispatch arrived in Washington reporting 
the interview with Lord Clarendon, the result that I had 
predicted to Moran occurred. The President at first insisted 
on the immediate recall of the disobedient Minister. Mr. 
Fish was equally amazed and even indignant at the extraor- 
dinary action of the envoy, but he was less peremptory. 
He persuaded the President not to take the step of remov- 
ing his most important diplomatic subordinate in the first 
months of his Administration ; and showed him how the 
necessity might be avoided. Mr. Motley was informed that 
he had transcended his instructions and that the further 
negotiation of the subject would be conducted in the United 
States and not at London. He was also directed to notify 
the British Government that the views he had presented 

* See this letter, page 46S. 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. 

were disapproved by his superiors. This, it v. 
would induce the Minister to resign, but he swallowed his 
humble pie and made the declaration required to 
Clarendon. He could not, however, bring himself to utter 
the words in person, and therefore wrote them, which saved 
him a part of his mortification, but left the record in the 
archives of the Foreign Office of England. 

I was inexpressibly pained at this situation, for I was fond 
of Motley, as every one was who was thrown much with him. 
I knew how his proud spirit must have been stung, ami I 
thought I knew how I could have saved him some of his 
suffering ; but he did not offer me his confidence, and I could 
not intrude. About this time, only four months after my 
arrival in England, General Rawlins died. He had in his 
possession a number of important papers relating to General 
Grant which only he or I could arrange, as we were the only 
two who had made the matters to which they referred our 
study. It was very desirable that these papers should 
fall into other hands, and I telegraphed at once to the P 
dent that unless he forbade I should return to . 
This was in accordance with his permission to me when I 
left. I received no refusal and made ready to start, wi 
however, to the President in advance, and requesting him to 
explain to the Secretary of State the reasons for my return, 
and relieve me from the appearance of disrespect in not 
applying to him for my leave. 

When I found I was to return I talked again with Moran 
about our chief. I was anxious to do the Minister 
and thought if I could carry a submissive mes^. 
ington I might save him further humiliation, and 
the loss of his place. Finally I determined to 
as delicately as possible to the ladies of his famil; 
them that from my knowledge of General Grant I 
he must be displeased, and that I believed it all-: 
for Mr. Motley to change his course ; but that I ( 



204 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



venture to approach him on the subject, which he had never 
broached to me. They at once begged me to speak to him 
frankly, assuring me that he would not be offended. I did so, 
and he took my interposition in the best possible spirit, 
admitting at once that he might have erred at the start, but 
declaring his intention now to carry out the wishes of the 
Government even if they were contrary to his own. He 
urged me to make this fully known to the President and to 
Mr. Fish, and to inform him of the result; and thanked me 
cordially for my interposition. 

When I returned to America I found the Head of the 
Government extremely displeased, and my messages did not 
have the full effect desired ; the explanations were insufficient. 
I therefore wrote to Mr. Motley and advised him to send me 
a letter which I might show to the President and Mr. Fish, 
repeating in the strongest words he could use the verbal 
messages he had sent through me. This he did promptly, 
and thanked me for the suggestion. 

I read this letter to the President and the Secretary of 
State, and they seemed to feel that there was now some 
probability that their instructions would be obeyed ; but they 
determined to risk nothing, and the further discussion of the 
points at issue was not resumed in London. Even this was 
not sufficient, high strung as Motley was, to induce him 
to resign; for he was fond of the accessories of etiquette and 
precedence attached to his place. Yet he was ir small 
things as well as great utterly lacking in the diplomatic 
character. Lord Houghton once said of him that he was a 
historian, not a diplomatist ; he was used to meting out 
praise and blame to Governments and could not understand 
that he was to take orders from them. This soon became 
evident a 

A month or two after my return I resigned my post 
oi .' retary at London, and resumed my duties 

at the White House. When this was decided the Presi- 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. 

dent said to me: "Badeau, I wish you would write to Mr 
Motley and say I would like him to nominate as your .succes- 
sor Mr. Nicholas Fish, the son of the Secretary of 
Mr. Fish does not know of this, and might feel delicate about 
appointing or asking me to appoint his son. I wish to sur- 
prise him, and Mr. Motley will have the chance to gratify 
both me and the Secretary of State." I wrote of course 
promptly to the Minister, but he declined to comply with 
the President's wish. He had another man whom he pre- 
ferred for the place, and whom he had promised to nomi- 
nate if I resigned. He had indeed already sent an informal 
request to the State Department which probably cr 
my letter on the ocean. But Motley at the best could only 
nominate, it was for the President to appoint ; and the 
statement to any friend that he could not redeem his 
pledge would surely have released him. But he in 
so far as he could on his nomination, and refused I 
the two persons on earth who were most able to oblige him. 
I do not know that Mr. Fish ever knew of this circum- 
stance. General Grant enjoined secrecy on me at the time, 
and I never spoke of it to the Secretary or his family. 

But the President was extremely angry; he looked i 
the refusal as another piece of insubordination, a proof 
that Motley was determined to do as he pleased, and not as 
the President desired; more than this, he regarded it, after 
all that had occurred, as a personal discourtesy and defi. 
Mr. Motley's friend was not appointed, so that he lost what 
he wanted, as well as the regard of the President. Ad 
two after the letter arrived Grant asked his Cabi; 
one of them had a man he wanted to send to London in my 
stead. The place had not been known to be vacant, and at 
first no name was mentioned; but after a while Mr. C 
well, the Postmaster-General, suggested Mr. E. R. N 
and that gentleman, who was utterly unknown to M 
received the appointment. Young Mr. Fish, at G. 



206 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Grant's suggestion, was sent as Secretary to Berlin, where 
the Minister was less recalcitrant. 

During the winter nothing further was clone about Mot- 
ley ; but the President received from several sources reports 
in regard to the Minister's social treatment of Americans 
which displeased him. I fancy the stories were exaggerated, 
but it was said that Motley ignored his compatriots, and that 
his deference for the aristocracy was so marked that he 
disliked to bring democrats into contact with them. 

In May I returned to London, this time as Consul-General, 
and on the day I left Washington, I dined with the Presi- 
dent. He went to the door of the White House to bid me 
good-by, and we talked a long while in the lower halls. 
Then and there he told me that he meant to remove Mr. 
Motley. This was on the 15th of May, nearly two months 
before the final vote on the Saint Domingo matter. He said 
he was persuaded that the Minister was un-American in 
spirit and not a fitting representative of democracy. He 
charged me not to disclose his intention to any human 
being, and declared he had not told it even to Mrs. Grant ; 
or to any one whatever, except the Secretary of State. 
He even said he should like to make me Minister to Ens:- 
land, but I replied at once that he ought not to think of 
the appointment. I was not sufficiently prominent before 
the country, and the nomination would be regarded as favor- 
itism and would injure him. He promised, however, to 
write me fully on public affairs, letters which I might show, 
and which would indicate his confidence in me; and he kept 
his word.*' 

As soon as I arrived in London, Motley asked me how 
the President felt toward him, and I had great difficulty 
in replying without betraying the President's confidence. 
Motley was so amiable to me personally that I felt more than 
sorry for him; he enjoyed his social opportunities so keenly, 

* Sec Chapter L. 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. 207 

and in all social matters he so adorned his position that I 
should have been glad to see him remain. I told him he 
ought to do every thing in his power to cultivate Ami 
society; to invite Americans to his house, to make himself 
liked by them. He took my advice after a fashion ; held 
Saturday receptions for Americans and made a Fourth of 
July party for them. But it did no good, for he asked no 
English to meet them, and the Americans felt themselves 
excluded from the society to which their Minister was 
admitted as their representative. I also urged Motley, if he 
was anxious to please the President, to make much of the 
envoys of the Central and South American Republics. I 
thought if he would form a democratic coterie and put 
himself at the head of it in London society, it would make 
him more of a power, enhance the consequence of the 
republicans, and be an advantage to himself at home. lie 
invited the republican ministers a little, but his heart was 
not with them. He preferred ambassadors and royal and 
aristocratic connections in every way. Still he asked me 
to write to the President what he was doing, and I complied. 

But it was of no avail. In July he read in the news- 
papers rumors of his recall, and of the appointment of Mr. 
Frelinghuysen in his place. He was greatly shocked, and 
I was myself surprised, for I had thought from the delay 
that the President's feeling might have been miti. 
Motley himself acknowledged that he had erred the 
before, but he held that his offense had been com: 
But Grant did not often condone. The crisis finally came. 

Motley was living in Lord Yarborough's house, in Arl 
ton Street, one of the most sumptuous in London ; b 
entertaining sovereigns, his halls were filled with Titians and 
Murillos and Van Dykes. I recollect a dinner just before he 
fell at which D'Israeli, the Duke of Devonshil 
childs, and thirty or forty others of the highest p 
London were present, and the grace and urbanity with which 



2o8 GRANT IN PEACE. 

he received and arranged the splendid company were remarked 
by all. He held no memorandum in his hand, but stood at 
the centre of his long table which was gleaming with silver 
and lights, and pointed to each aristocratic guest where he 
should sit and whom he should place beside him. His hand- 
some, intellectual face was lighted up with pleasure and 
distinction, and he felt himself at home. 

Poor man ! The next day his post was required of him. 
He was requested to resign, and, unfortunately for his dignity, 
refused. The Tenure of Office act was still in force under 
which Stanton had held on in spite of Johnson, and Motley 
availed himself of it now. After Frelinghuysen declined the 
place, it was offered to Morton of Indiana, who was also 
unable to accept it, but Motley remained against the wishes 
of his own Government ; of course discredited both in society 
and at court ; with no important business whatever entrusted 
to him ; presenting the unprecedented spectacle of a repre- 
sentative of a country which did not wish him to represent 
it, a diplomatist defying instead of supporting his Govern- 
ment, a gentleman retaining a position in a service that 
sought to discard him. He even complained in society of 
his treatment and thus injured his country instead of benefit- 
ing it. It was supposed by the English that he had been 
displaced because of his preferences for England, whereas 
the fact was directly the contrary. The British Minister for 
Foreign Affairs said to Mr. Moran about this time, and Moran 
told it to me, that he would not have retained a subordinate a 
day after the first letter that Motley had written in dis- 
obedience of his instructions. 

Finally, as the time approached when Congress would 
meet, and the Government could report its action, the First 
Secretary, Mr. Moran, was directed to assume charge of the 
Legation ; and as Motley still refused to resign, he subjected 
himself to the indignity from which the Administration had 
sought to save him — he was expelled. 



GRANT AND MOTLEY. 9nrk 

He never recovered from the effect of all this on his 
health and spirits. He remained a short while in England, 
visiting his numerous friends, who strove in every way to 
soften the bitterness of the situation, though I never met one 
who approved his course in holding office after he had been 
requested to resign. Some of them thought from what he 
told them that he had been harshly treated, but they all 
admitted the right of a Government to select its own Minis- 
ter. I saw him occasionally, but our intercourse was of 
course painful. We reminded each other too much of the 
past. He soon went to Holland, where the Queen offered 
him a villa in which he wrote his volume of "John of Barne- 
veld." Then he returned to England and went about a little 
in the world, but his strength and vivacity were gone. To 
have been repudiated and dismissed by his own Government 
was a blow from which his proud spirit could not recover. In 
1873 he had a neuralgic or paralytic fit, from which he rallied 
for a while. Then his wife died of a cruel and lingering 
malady. This crushed him more completely still, and in the 
spring of 1877 he passed away, suddenly at the last. Two 
days before his death General Grant arrived in England, and 
I was told by an intimate and mutual friend that when Motley 
was informed of the extraordinary reception of the ex-Presi- 
dent he replied : "lam glad of it ; Grant is a great man and 
a representative American." 

The first Sunday that General Grant spent in London 
he was invited to a service at Westminster Abbe}'. 1 ' 
Stanley preached the sermon, and spoke tenderly of the loss 
to literature and to English society of the graceful and elo- 
quent historian, who had been his intimate friend, and then 
turned in the same discourse to offer welcome to that other 
American who had been General and President in the 
country which Motley -had represented in England 



14 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

CRANT AND SUMNER. 

SUMNER had hoped to be Secretary of State under 
Grant. His anticipations, indeed, began earlier still. 
It was positively arranged at the time of the impeachment of 
Andrew Johnson that he was to have the State Department 
if Wade had gone into the Presidency; and even under Lin- 
coln there was an occasion when he expected to supplant 
Seward. He thought himself especially fit for the post, and 
if acquirement and ornate eloquence were the prime requi- 
sites for a Secretary of State he might have filled the posi- 
tion with a certain degree of brilliancy. 

But though, with Sumner's consent, his friends pressed 
his name for the first position in the Cabinet, Grant never 
for a moment entertained the idea of appointing him. There 
was, indeed, little congruity between the plain and almost 
rugged soldier, used to war and actual strife, to directing 
armies and planning campaigns, and the polished rhetorician, 
the elaborate student of phrases, the man of the closet, the 
Senate, and of society. Sumner always felt— perhaps with 
many others — that the career of the soldier should have 
closed with the war. Anna cedant togee was always in their 
hearts, if not upon their lips. Chase, and Seward, and Stan- 
ton, and some of their successors, felt themselves better 
equipped in the arts of statesmanship than they believed any 
mere warrior could be, and they were undoubtedly jealous of 
the civic honors given to those who, they thought, should 
have been content with military rewards. ' But the people 

(210) 



GRANT AND SUMNER. 2II 

did not agree with them. It was a foregone conclusion from 
the close of the war that Grant should be the next President. 
In all ages the successful commander is the most generally 
popular of the aspirants for public favor, and in Grant's 
the highest honors of the State were absolutely pi 
upon him, not only unsought, but at first undesircd. 

Sumner was slow in accepting the situation, but he 
finally fell into line and made a speech or two in favor of 
Grant during the Presidential canvass of 1868. After this 
he expected the appointment to the State Department. The 
world knows that he was disappointed in his expectations. 
Still, at first Grant had a high appreciation of Sumner's 
character and ability. They had not been thrown together 
intimately, but Grant admired the steadfast position of the 
anti-slavery champion, as he always admired steadiness 
whether in friend or foe. He believed in Sumner's scholar- 
ship, which he had heard of, but could not verify; he fancied 
that Sumner was a statesman; and he f<^t the remains of 
the indignation which burst out all over the North after the 
dastardly attack of Brooks had elevated the victim into a 
martyr. 

Sumner had been for years on intimate terms with Fish ; 
had dined at Fish's house weekly while they were together in 
the Senate ; and had been a constant visitor at Fish's homes 
in town and country in New York. Fish had seen Sumner 
often in Paris while the orator lay suffering from the blows 
received in the Senate chamber. Thus when Fish entered the 
Cabinet he naturally turned to his old associate and friend, 
who had been more lately familiar with high politics than 
himself ; for Fish had been out of the public service for twelve 
years, while Sumner was at this time chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Foreign Affairs. The official relations <>f the 
two brought them at once into close companionship. 
Grant's Administration was three months old Motley 



212 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



sent to England to please Sumner, without whose interposi- 
tion he would at most have been returned to Vienna. 

But almost immediately Sumner's dictatorial disposition 
and imperious behavior began to make trouble. The Claren- 
don-Johnson Treaty was still before the Senate when Grant 
became President, and in April, 1869, without consulting the 
Administration, Sumner made his famous speech, in which he 
claimed that the war had been "doubled in duration " by the 
English "intervention," and that "England was responsible 
for the additional expenditure " which America thus incurred. 
From Sumner's position in the Senate, and his well-known 
personal relations with Fish, the country would havj a right 
to presume that these views were shared by the Administra- 
tion, and this speech at once compelled the President and the 
Secretary of State to consider and define their own posi- 
tion. It was very different from Sumner's. They held that 
though England had been most unfriendly in her prompt 
recognition of Southern belligerency, she was yet within her 
rights as an independent nation in making the recogni- 
tion ; and they were far from maintaining that she was re- 
sponsible for all the subsequent or consequential damages. 
When therefore, Sumner's view was presented to the Admin- 
istration by Motley as the basis for his own instructions, it 
was necessarily rejected. At this Sumner became very indig- 
nant, and at times was almost offensive in behavior. He con- 
sidered the rejection a personal slight to himself, and threat- 
ened, as I have already stated, to induce Motley to resign. Nev- 
ertheless for a while he retained a show of amicable relations 
with the Government. I remember that I dined with him a 
night or two before I left Washington to accompany Motley to 
England, and he was in high spirits, though I fancy he had 
not then seen Motley's final instructions, which were only con- 
cluded at the last moment, and reached the Minister just as he 
was about to sail. Sumner wrote me once while I was in Eng- 
land a diffuse letter defending himself against the criticisms 



GRANT AND SUMNER. 

of his former English friends, who were all very indignant at 
the position he had assumed. He gave me leave to use the 
letter, and I sometimes tried to explain to one or two what 
seemed to them most offensive in his views ; but with little 
success. 

I returned to Washington four months later, and during 
the winter the question of St. Domingo came up. [was 
never taken into the confidence of those who originated that 
scheme, and I know no more of it than the public knows. 
The President once or twice spoke of it to me, and expr 
a desire for the ratification of the treaty, and I wrote one or 
two articles in favor of it for the newspapers, because it was 
an Administration measure. I learned the general arguments 
that were offered from a public point of view, and I tho 
there were reasons why the acquisition of territory in St. 
Domingo was desirable ; but at this time the President did 
not seem to me to have set his heart so much upon the 
measure as afterward. I believe it was the heat of the 
test that made him so eager for success at last; for he had 
the soldier's instinct even in civil affairs; when he was once 
engaged in battle he was always anxious to win. 

Sumner, General Grant told me, at first acquiesced in the 
scheme ; but he afterward opposed it bitterly. Those who 
surrounded Grant thought that the opposition was more on 
personal than public grounds. Sumner was d 
because he could dictate neither the policy nor the appoint- 
ments of the Administration. But Grant and Fish were both 
men unused to dictation ; they both resented it ; and the 
antagonism between the characters of Grant and Sumnei 
became apparent. Sumner's enormous conceit was evident 
in words and tones and acts to every one with whom he came 
in contact. He thought his judgment and knowledg 
superior to those of a plain soldier like Grant that he could 
not conceal the idea; and he was besides utterly unpra I 
as a statesman, so that not only the simplicity and mo 



214 GRAXT IX PEACE. 

of Grant were shocked by the pompous self-assertion and 
conspicuous vanity of the orator, but the executive ability 
and plain common sense of the President were as different 
as could be from the high-sounding theories and impossible 
suggestions of the inflated doctrinaire. 

Nevertheless Sumner was practical enough in the pursuit 
of power, and in providing for his friends. He was always 
a place-hunter for others, and knew as well as any man how 
to build up and maintain a personal party by finding positions 
and employments for his adherents. I cannot say that he 
could have been induced to support the St. Domingo scheme 
by offers of patronage ; but I do know that men in Grant's 
Cabinet thought and said so at the time. Sumner was 
especially anxious that a certain friend of his named Ashley 
should have a high appointment ; he was always adverting to 
this when important measures were discussed. "Why don't 
you do something for Ashley?" was his constant cry. Grant 
had some reason, I never knew what, for refusing this re- 
quest ; perhaps it was in part an obstinate unwillingness to 
be forced or persuaded into anything; he had held out so 
long, he would hold out to the end. For he was often, I 
thought, maladroit in the distribution and withholding of 
patronage. Regarding it as he did, and as everybody did at 
that time, as a legitimate means of party support, and believ- 
ing that it was clearly within his province to distribute of] 
as he chose — he might have won many important people 
whom he drove away ; he .was not pliable enough for a 
politician. He thought he would not truckle to the press, 
and therefore he defied and fought the great journals and 
journalists of the country. But by a judicious use of legiti- 
mate political advantages, and by personal advances that 
coming from him would have conferred distinction, he might 
have retained as friends many who became his bitterest 
enemies. I thought at first that even Sumner's friendship 
need not have been lost. 



GRANT AND SUMNER. 



21 



In the winter or spring of 1870, one of Grant's Cabinet 
said to him : " General, you can get St. Domingo and Sum- 
ner's support if you will give him something for Ashley"; 
but Grant refused bluntly and almost sternly. The Cabinet 
officer may have been right or wrong; but I believe now that 
no concessions could long have retained Sumner as a friend. 
He wanted too much; to control absolutely; and the more 
that was yielded the more he claimed. Lincoln had the same 
trouble with him as Grant, but was more adroit. He avoided 
open ruptures by seeming to concede, by playing upon Sum- 
ner's vanity, by making him believe that he suggested 
measures which the Administration had already deter- 
mined on. 

Fish finally became assured that the St. Domingo treaty 
could not pass the Senate; a private count was taken, and it 
was ascertained that the requisite two-thirds could not be 
obtained in its favor, though more than a majority would vote 
for it. When this was certain Fish became anxious to settle 
the question definitely, and begged Sumner, who as Chairman 
of the Committee on Foreign Affairs could control the 
situation, to bring up the treaty and reject it. so as to have 
done with the matter; but Sumner was determined to make 
the Government withdraw the treaty, a peculiar humili 
to which Grant refused to submit. 

Late in the spring of 1870, Fish went to Sumner's house. 
It was night, and the Secretary was returning from a dinner; 
he was ushered into Sumner's library and found him in tears. 
The domestic relations of the Senator, the world knows. 
were very unhappy, and he was depressed and probabl 
templating them. He was not rich, and confessed that the 
state of his affairs also troubled him. Fish remembered their 
old time friendship and sought to console him. He 
"Reject this treaty, Sumner, and let the Senate a 
then go abroad for the summer; get away from y 
and think of something else." Sumner was at this 



2i6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

preparing an edition of his speeches or some similar work, 
and Fish urged him to apply himself to this as a distrac- 
tion. But Sumner said he could not afford to go abroad, 
and Fish in the effusion of the moment, and knowing that 
Motley was to be recalled, exclaimed : " How would you like 
to be Minister to England?" The moment he heard his own 
words, he recognized his mistake. He perceived that the 
offer might be misconstrued, and regretted what he had said. 
But Sumner simply replied: "No, I cannot disturb Motley," 
and Fish eagerly acquiesced; "No, I see," he said, "you are 
right, you could not supplant Motley." Not another word 
passed between them on the subject, yet this has been 
called an attempt to bribe Mr. Sumner into the support of 
the St. Domingo treaty by the offer of the English mission. 
In this very interview Fish had already urged Sumner to 
bring up the treaty and reject it; for the Administration had 
fully made up its mind that the measure was lost. 

Twice before this Grant had told Fish that he meant to 
remove Motley ; once when Motley's report of his first inter- 
view with Lord Clarendon arrived ; next when it was discov- 
ered that Motley had submitted his account of the interview 
to the Foreign Office in London, and thus made it a part 
of the British archives; but on each occasion Fish had inter- 
posed to save the envoy. I have already stated in a previous 
chapter that in May when I was leaving Washington, the 
President told me he had certainly determined to remove 
Mr. Motley. 

On the 30th of June, the St. Domingo treaty was rejected, 
and on the 1st of July Motley was requested to resign. The 
determination was executed then which had long before been 
arrived at; but I have no doubt whatever that the decision 
of the Senate accelerated the action of the President. The 
axe had been hanging, but now Grant let it fall. It was on 
the night of July 1st that General Grant desired Mr. Fish to 
request the resignation of Motley; but the President sup- 



GRANT AND SUMNER. 2I ~ 

posed that the Secretary would telegraph, and a week or two 
later when he discovered that Fish had merely written, he- 
requested him to telegraph; and the Secretary of State of 
course complied. 

For some months all personal relations between Sumner 
and Grant had ceased. Sumner had used language highly 
disrespectful and injurious to the President ; not only attack- 
ing his acts but impeaching his motives, and making himself 
personally as well as politically offensive, and Grant was not 
the man to endure this without resenting it. lie did not 
measure his own language in commenting on that of the 
Senator. Nevertheless, Mr. Fish had continued his inter- 
course with Sumner, though it was of course constrained; 
for Sumner criticised the Secretary with a contemptuous 
of condescension, saying that Fish meant well, but 
by others. Fish was aware of the language, but it v. 
important to preserve a sort of concord in their official rela- 
tions that he overlooked what otherwise he might haw 
sidered unpardonable. He was in the Senate Chamber 
shortly after the nomination of Motley's successor was sent 
in, and went up as usual to Sumner's desk; Sumner almost 
provoked a rupture then, but finally thought better of it ; 
and things went on for awhile as before in spite of the M 
imbroglio. 

When the Senate re-assembled in December the new com- 
mittees were formed; but though the treaty of St. Domingo 
had been rejected in July, principally through Sumner's 
efforts, no attempt was made by the Administration to pro- 
cure the deposition of Sumner from his place as Chairman of 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs. If the Government had 
wished to avenge itself in that way for Sumner's 
to the treaty, now was the time, for his imperious behavio 
had made him many enemies as well as rivals in the Si 
but not a step was taken, not a word uttered by the Pre 
or one of his Cabinet in that direction. Motley was 



*2i8 GRANT IN PEACE. 

and peremptorily removed in December, and in January the 
Senate called for the entire correspondence on the subject. 
In this correspondence Motley had, with very bad taste, 
referred to the rumor that he had been removed because of 
Sumner's opposition to the St. Domingo scheme, and Fish 
replied with some severe strictures, which, however, in no 
way reflected on Sumner. The Senator, nevertheless, at once 
resented them for his friend ; he refused at a dinner at 
General Schenck's house to speak to Mr. Fish, and after- 
ward announced in the Senate that he had " cut the Secretary 
of State." 

At that very time negotiations for the Treaty of Wash- 
ington had begun. Sir John Rose had been sent out from 
England to prepare the way for the Joint High Commission 
that followed. Mr. Fish, a night or two before, in spite of 
all that had occurred, had visited Sumner and consulted him 
in regard to the Treaty, which of course must go to the 
Senate for confirmation. Sumner had, however, stipulated 
for some provisions that would have put a stop to all nego- 
tiations whatever with England. He sent Fish a written 
memorandum in which he declared that "the withdrawal of 
the British flag from this hemisphere — including the prov- 
inces and islands" — must be a "condition preliminary " to 
any settlement. This preposterous proposition was of course 
never entertained for a moment by the Administration, for no 
statesman on either side of the Atlantic could conceive of 
its acceptance by England. Before Mr. Fish could reply to 
the note, however, the dinner occurred at which Sumner 
declined the acquaintance of the Secretary. Sir John Rose 
was present at the dinner, which, as I have said, was given 
by General Schenck, then recently appointed Minister to 
England ; so that in the midst of the negotiation on so 
grave a question, on which he was himself officially to act, 
Sumner refused to associate with the principal representative 
and spokesman of his own Government. 



GRANT AND SUMNER. 

The conferences with Rose, however, continued, and ho 
at last returned to England, the bearer of information 
resulted in the dispatch of three Commission 
British Government who negotiated with war own repr< 
tives the Treaty of Washington. The British Commi 
ers arrived in this country in the last days of February 
new Senate assembled on the 4th of March, and then the 
Administration, with whom it was evident that Mr. Sumner 
could not or would not work, exerted itself to procure the 
selection of another Chairman of the Committee on I 
Affairs. Sumner would speak neither to the President nor 
to the Secretary of State, and it was impossible to cai 
public business without such communication between 
high officials. Neither the President northe Secretary would 
resign, and Sumner was less powerful than they. He was 
deposed. 

Not only his manner but his doctrines contributed to his 
downfall. It was impossible to negotiate or even prepare a 
Treaty with the stipulations which he 1 red indispens- 

able. It was absurd to suggest or suppose that 
would think of withdrawing her flag from this continent; 
the bare mention of such a proposition would have been an 
insult; and the idea was as Quixotic and unstatesmanlike as 
ever entered the brain of a sane politician; it alone <! 
strated the unfitness of its author for the conduct 
affairs. 

Sumner felt the blow that was dealt him almost as keenly 
as the strokes of Brooks; both were delivered in the S 
Chamber. Following on the heels of his domestic t] 
this later misfortune affected, not only his feelin . 
judgment and his political consistency. When the next eh 
tions came on he joined hands with those who had b 
only his enemies, but those of his country, in order it' p. 
to overthrow Grant. This completed his politii 
tion. Me was censured by a vote of the Mas 



220 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



Legislature, and though the censure was revoked he never 
regained his influence. His health and spirits soon gave way. 
lie was deposed in the Senate in 1872. The same year 
Grant was re-elected by a triumphant majority. Sumner 
lingered a year or two in physical and mental suffering and 
in 1874 he died. The physicians called the disease angina 
pectoris ; it was rightly named, the anguish of a disappointed 
heart. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

GRANT AND CLADSTONE. 

GRANT and Gladstone achieved each his highest eleva- 
tion at about the same time. The British Pr< 
went into office in December, 186S, the American President 
in March, 1869. The elections which gave them • 
occurred within a few weeks of each other. There was 1 
a further parallel. Gladstone had grown into the position of 
a Liberal by successive conversions, while Grant, from a man 
without pronounced political preferences, had gradually 
become a decided Republican. The new Government in 
England looked to the new people in America as likely to 
become allies. Sumner was known personally to the promi- 
nent members of the Liberal party, and Motley from his 
literary reputation was welcome to the cultivated cli 
There was, it is true, a shade of distrust because of Sumner's 
speech delivered only a month before Motley's appointment ; 
still the reception of the new Minister was more than 
friendly; there seemed a feeling that now was the time to 
begin a new era and cultivate a sincerer amity. I remem- 
ber in my own conversations with Forster, Lord Halifax, 
and other prominent Liberals, a very decided effort on their 
part to prove that the action of the British Government 
during the war had not been so hostile as Americans 
posed. They especially claimed that the recognition of 
belligerency had not the significance attached to it 01 
side of the ocean. Doubtless their eagerness was partly 
because they knew the stress Motley had laid upon the 

(221 ) 



222 GRANT IN PEACE. 

recognition in his communications with Lord Clarendon — 
a stress in which, as I have already shown, he exceeded his 
instructions. 

The speedy interruption of negotiations after Motley's 
insubordination became known was doubtless remarked by 
the British Cabinet, and in the autumn, when I returned to 
Washington, I received a letter from Lord Halifax, so full of 
significance that I laid it before the President and Mr. Fish. 
It was followed by others all breathing the kindest spirit on 
the part of the English authorities. My answers were sub- 
mitted to the President, and when I returned to England 
the next year I told Lord Halifax that I had shown his let- 
ters to General Grant. He admitted having written them 
with the hope that they would be seen by the President 
and his Government. About this time also I wrote an 
article on "Our Relations with England," which appeared 
simultaneously in Harpers Magazine in New York and 
McMillan's in London. This paper, bearing the signature of 
an officer at the Executive Mansion who had so recently 
served in the American Legation at London, was recognized 
as sanctioned by the Administration. It was of course read 
in advance by both the President and the Secretary of State, 
and was intended to indicate the good feeling of Grant's 
Government and its desire for amicable relations with 
England. 

It had now become very desirable that this feeling should 
be generally known, both because of the rejection of the 
Clarendon-Johnson treaty in April, and the effect of Mr. 
Sumner's speech demanding consequential damages ; as well 
as because of what only those in interior circles knew, the 
purport of Motley's first communication to the British 
Foreign Office. It was also important to neutralize the out- 
givings in society, for word had been brought from several 
sources to the State Department that the tone of the Minis- 
ter's conversations was at variance with his instructions. 



GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 

In the first months of Grant's Administration Sir John 
Rose, then the Canadian Premier, was in Washington acting 
as commissioner under a previous treaty to settle certain dis- 
puted points between the United States and Canada; and in 
this international character he often met the Secretary of 
State. Fish from the first had conceived the idea of an 
arrangement between the two countries almost identical with 
that which in the end was arrived at. On this account, per- 
haps, he was all the more dissatisfied with Motley's course, 
though he bore with him until it became indispensable to 
appoint a successor. 

In conversation w T ith Rose, who was a shrewd, long- 
headed man, the idea was thrown out that an accommodation 
between the two countries was practicable. Fish said that 
England had on two occasions shown great tact, and even 
wisdom, in sending special envoys to negotiate with the 
United States; that the Americans had been pie; sed with 
the compliment and especially gratified by the selection of 
Lord Ashburton and Lord Elgin as plenipotentiaries. Not, 
he said, that Americans thought more of lords than of other 
men, but they knew that the English did, and that therefore 
it was a compliment for the English Government to send a 
peer to Washington. Rose took the idea at once ; and then 
Fish developed the points on which he thought the two 
Administrations might agree. He said he was sure that an 
expression of regret on the part of England for the escape of 
the Alabama would be indispensable. He was the last man, 
he declared, who would consent to the humiliation of his 
country, and the last to ask of another statesman what he 
would himself refuse under similar circumstances ; but this lie 
thought England might fairly concede, and the weight of the 
concession in the subsequent discussions would be enormous. 
He also, suggested arbitration, and indicated the line on 
which he thought negotiations might proce 
for England shortly afterward and soon returned armed with 



224 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



authority to discuss more definitely the informal propositions 
he had conveyed. He was in America in the autumn and 
early winter of 1870 for this purpose. 

At first negotiations went on without the apparent inter- 
vention of Thornton, the accredited British Minister. Rose, 
it is true, communicated to the Minister all that occurred ; but 
the preliminaries were purposely contrived so that the Govern- 
ments should not be compromised if the matter fell through. 
Nothing would necessarily appear on the records of the Lega- 
tion. But when all was arranged, and Rose's course had been 
approved by telegraph from London, Thornton went to the 
State Department officially. The four letters stipulating for a 
Joint High Commission, which were afterward published with 
the treaty, were drawn up and signed by him and Fish. They 
were dated so as to give the appearance of the compact having 
been made in the usual way, between the envoy and the State 
Department, but the arrangements made were in reality those 
of Fish and Rose. 

It was at this time that Fish consulted Sumner, and the 
Senator laid down the impossible but indispensable stipula- 
tion that England should withdraw her flag from this conti- 
nent as a preliminary to any further negotiation. Needless 
to say no such proviso appeared in the compact or was ever 
proposed to any British representative. 

Rose returned to England, and immediately afterward 
Lord de Grey, Sir Stafford Northcote, and Professor Mounta- 
gue Bernard, of Oxford University, together with Sir John 
MacDonald, at that time Canadian Premier, and Sir Edward 
Thornton were appointed commissioners on the part of Great 
Britain to settle all outstanding difficulties with the United 
States. Fish had suggested that Rose should be one of the 
commissioners, but Rose thought he could do better service 
in London. It was also at one time proposed that John 
Bright should join the British representation, but to this Fish 
objected, because he said Bright was so committed to the 



GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 

American view that his action would have less weight in 
England. Lord de Grey, afterwards Lord Ripon, 
member of Gladstone's cabinet, and Northcote, after v. 
Lord Iddesleigh, belonged to the opposition. The Araei : 
commissioners were the Secretary of State, General Schenck, 
the newly appointed Minister to England, Judge Nelson 
of the Supreme Court (a Democrat), ex-Attorney-Gen 
Hoar, and the actual law officer of the Government, Atton 
General Williams. It was at this juncture that the Adminis- 
tration requested its friends in the Senate to select another 
chairman for the Committee on Foreign Affairs, as Sumner's 
impracticable doctrines, as well as his refusal to speak to 
either the President or the Secretary of State made the 
treaty an impossibility if he remained in the place. Sumner 
was removed, and the negotiations proceeded successfully. In 
less than two months the British commissioners returned 
to London, carrying the treaty with them. 

I had been sent to Spain by the State Department during 
this winter, and it was while I was absent from London t 
the British Commissioners started for America. After Mot- 
ley's removal there was no American Minister in London 
until Schenck should arrive, but the Secretary of Legation, 
Mr. Moran, was acting Charge d' Affaires. My own position 
was that of Consul-General, entirely without diplomatic func- 
tions, and without any right to know the secrets of the Lej 
tion. Moran, therefore, though my personal friend, very pi 
erly did not communicate to me what was going on ; but 
soon as I returned from Spain Lord Halifax called on me and 
told me of the negotiations. He asked me to his country 
house and afterward made a dinner in town that I might 
have an opportunity of meeting Mr. Gladstone. The Prime 
Minister then communicated to me his views on several of 
the points at issue. He particularly desired to indicate his 
anxiety for the success of the negotiations and his intent 
to do all in his power to further this end. He talked at 

!5 



22 g GRANT IN PEACE. 

length and confidentially, and with the expectation that I 
would make known his opinions to the President. Of course 
I wrote them out that night and forwarded them to Washing- 
ton. Forster and Halifax also communicated to me very 
fully their views, all of which I duly transmitted either to the 
President or the Secretary of State, or sometimes to the 
Assistant Secretary, Bancroft Davis, with whom, as well 
as with his two superiors, I was in close and constant 
correspondence. If nothing more, the messages I sent 
served to show how anxious Gladstone and his colleagues 
were to arrive at a happy understanding with America. 

The treaty was promptly ratified by the Senate. Its stip- 
ulations provided that the principal points at issue should be 
submitted to a Tribunal of Arbitration composed of five 
members of different nationalities, to sit at Geneva. In De- 
cember, 1 87 1, the Tribunal met, and the parties to the dispute 
put in their statements. Bancroft Davis was the agent of 
the United States. William M. Evarts, Caleb Cushing, and 
Morrison R. Waite were counsel on the American side. 
In the American "case" the question of consequential 
damages was proposed. The claims were not elaborately 
maintained, but the inquiry was made whether they could not 
be considered. At first their presentation met no disapproval 
in England. The claims themselves were scouted, and Sum- 
ner's original advocacy of them in the Senate had almost cost 
him the acquaintance of his warmest English friends ; but it 
was supposed that they would be thrown out as a matter of 
course, and for nearly two months after the presentation of 
the "case" the English people and Government offered no 
objection to the consideration of the claims. But after 
a while the Opposition party discovered that a weapon might 
be made of them against the Government, and the Tories set 
themselves diligently to work to injure the Administration by 
representing that it had yielded to outrageous Yankee inso- 
lence and "bluff." The press took up the cry and the whole 



GRANT AND GLADSTON] . 

--/ 

English nation soon fell into one of the most absurd 
hysterical fits of passion that sober John Bull ever suflE 
from. The Liberals became frightened at the hubbub, 
when Parliament met the Government felt that its fal 
trembling. The press proclaimed that arbitration n 
go on unless the claims were withdrawn, and such 
was raised that the Government almost yielded. It v. 
to Richmond" over again. 

But there were two parties to the question. The Ameri- 
can Government held that the English had agreed to submit 
all the points at issue to the arbitrators. There was a solemn 
treaty which had been ratified and confirmed by the cont< 
ing parties. If the English should now withdraw from the 
arbitration, America would hold that they had violated the 
treaty, and war might be the consequence. The greal 
anxiety prevailed among those who knew how imminent the 
danger was. I was still in London and on intimate terms 
with the Minister, General Schenck, and I suppose as much 
in his confidence as it was proper I should be. How hard he- 
worked to avert a war, how fertile he was in invention, i 
faithful to his country's interest, how dignified yet court© 
in his attitude toward England, how anxious to discover sonic 
means of avoiding a rupture, nobody living knows betl 
than I. No finer diplomatic services were ever rendered I 
United States; not even those of Adams during the Rebelli 
were more arduous or indispensable. A sin 
maladroit expression, an ill-tempered or insufficient act, 
have precipitated war. 

For the feeling in England ran very high. At tim 
was positively offensive to Americans, especially official or; 
More than once at clubs and dinners I had to resent remai 
that no good American could listen to in silence, and v I I. 
too, in my sphere was bound to be courteous and re- 
But we had our friends. The members of t. nunc 

were as loyal as they dared to be; they were driven t 



228 GRANT IN PEACE. 

by their enemies, charged with deserting their own country, 
but they did not give up ; they desired as earnestly as the 
Americans to avoid a war, and were undoubtedly anxious to 
fulfill the stipulations of the treaty. Mr. D'Israeli, to his 
credit be it said, did not one thing, uttered not one word to 
distress or embarrass the Government or to precipitate a rup- 
ture. He passed no harsh strictures on America just as he 
had refrained during the Rebellion itself from injurious or 
offensive utterances ; in this more self-contained and politic 
than his great rival. 

In the Government, if one may say so, Lady Waldegrave, 
whose husband, then Mr. Chichester Fortescue, had a seat in 
the Cabinet, carried herself manfully. She would not aban- 
don hope when everybody else said hope was gone. She 
went about in society purposely to excite an influence favora- 
ble to peace, and her cleverness was great as well as her 
social influence. I remember more than once her language 
at her Sunday afternoons in Carlton Gardens, where the 
ablest and most distinguished men in London used to congre- 
gate ; how she insisted that a way out of the difficulty could 
and must be found ; that England and America must not 
differ seriously. 

I doubt whether Americans except in Government circles 
knew how near we were to a tremendous conflict. The 
Government, of course, was greatly' concerned, Grant and 
Fish especially so ; for their glory would be lessened by the 
failure of arbitration. They were incessant in their efforts 
and anxieties. The labor, however, fell particularly on the 
State Department, and the Secretary of State at this time 
performed a patriotic service even greater than when he pro- 
posed and negotiated the treaty. He did not yield one iota 
of his country's dignity, and yet he skillfully piloted the 
ship of State among dangers such as it had not more than 
once incurred since America had been a nation. For surely 
there could be no greater evil to either country than for Eng- 






GRANT AND GLADSTONE. 2 -, Q 

land and America to go to war. The contest would have 
been bitterer and longer after, than during, the Rebellion. 
Perhaps with the South on our hands we could not have coped 
with England ; but with the South as our partners the conflict 
would have been one of the most stupendous that the world 
has seen. This danger was avoided with dignity and credit 
by the skill and sagacity of the State Department and 
servants, and the steady support and judgment of the 
President. 

Arbitration went on. Some ingenious brain suggested 
that the arbitrators should decide without consulting 1 )ngl aid 
that the consequential claims were out of court, so that neither 
nation need recede from its contention; this proposition « 
adopted, and the firebrand lighted by Sumner was quenched 
before it kindled one of the mightiest conflagrations of 
modern times. Then all proceeded peacefully. The arbitra- 
tors awarded damages to America for what direct injui 
Alabama and her consorts had inflicted ; England had already 
expressed her regret ; a new proviso was inserted in th 
of international law between England and America, and the 
two nations were friends. 

Years afterward when Grant visited England Gladstone 
was out of power and it fell to the Tories to entertain the ex- 
President. They did it with good taste and ungrudging cor- 
diality ; but it was hard that the man who had made it | 
ble for Grant to receive these honors in England should have 
no share in extending them. Everywhere the English people 
greeted Grant as the statesman who had initiated arbitral '. 
as the warrior who preferred peace with England to war. 
Addresses teemed with plaudits on this account, and oral 
vied with each other in their enthusiastic comment 
Gladstone, who as much as Grant was entitled to the 
of arbitration, was in disfavor then ; his enemies invited I 
to none of the banquets to the American soldier, and I 
not remember that the ex-President and the ex-Premi( 



230 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



met except at the reception given to Grant at the house of 
the American Minister. There the crowd was so great that 
no especial conversation was possible, so that Grant never got 
a chance to see much of his great English compeer. 

Among Gladstone's highest claims to honor hereafter 
will be the fact that he avoided war with America by con- 
senting to atone for a national wrong, while the glory of 
settling peacefully a tremendous difference with to us at least 
the most important of modern nations will be Grant's great- 
est proof of statesmanship. For given all the honor they 
deserve to Fish and Schenck and Evarts and Bancroft Davis 
and Cushing and Waite — and no other Americans have earned 
equal credit in our day for any single act of civil life — still 
Grant was the head ; it was for him always to decide. If he 
had been backward or uncertain, if he had failed in judgment 
or nerve or sagacity or decision — the achievement would 
have been impossible. If there were no other measure of his 
Administration worthy of praise, this one makes it well for 
America that Grant was President. 




GRANT MEETING 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



GRANT AND FISH. 



FISH was the one member of the Cabinet who served 
during the entire eight years that Grant was 1 
He entered the Administration on the nth of March, 
and remained until March, 1877, even delaying a few 
under Hayes. ■ He had not been Grant's original choi.. 
Secretary of State, but before YVashburne's brief term was 
over, when Wilson declined to take the post, and it wa 
covered that Stewart, of New York, was ineligible ( 
Treasury, the President appealed to Fish to help him 1 
his dilemma. 

From the day of his election, Grant wrote, he had d 
mined to offer Fish the appointment of Minister to England, 
but in the re-arrangement of his Cabinet, which was unavoid- 
able, he invited the ex-Governor and Senator to accept the 
position of Secretary of State. Fish promptly declined the 
proposition. He had been requested to telegraph his answer 
and did so of course, but he also wrote, posting the letter with 
his own hands, because of its importance. On his return to 
his house he was met by a telegram announcing his nomina- 
tion and confirmation as Secretary of State ; Grant ha 
waited for the refusal. The dispatch requested Fis 
reply, but to await the arrival of Colonel Babcock, wl. 
bearer of a personal message from th nt 

Babcock arrived the same day with instate: 
the acceptance of the post. Still Fish h< t 
refused, until finally Babcock communicated 



232 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

message from the President which he had been ordered to 
reserve for a final effort. Upon the receipt of this Fish con- 
sented to become a member of the Government. 

Grant at this crisis was more than glad to have Fish 
enter his Cabinet ; and no man had more permanent influ- 
ence with him in all his public policy than the Secretary of 
State, but it is nevertheless true that when the offer was 
made Grant had by no means so high an appreciation of 
Fish's ability as he afterward acquired. He was not then 
familiar with the personal political history of his time ; and 
knew little of the career of civilians who had not held the 
highest national positions. Fish had been twelve years out 
of the public service, a longer period than Grant himself had 
been of importance. He selected Fish rather on account of 
his character and private position than because he knew him 
for a man of first-rate capacity. He confessed to me more 
than once that he had been surprised at the quality and calibre 
of Fish's ability; not only at his judgment and energy, but at 
his downwright power to deal with men and affairs. But 
when Grant's public career was over he looked upon Fish as 
the ablest of the men who had entered his Cabinet and as 
worthy to stand in- the line with any of his predecessors in 
the State Department. 

There were certain traits which the two possessed in com- 
mon — a natural plainness, almost a ruggedness of character, 
in Fish's case doubtless inherited from his Dutch ancestors 
and not entirely softened even by courtly associations or innate 
breeding; a stubbornness of disposition that was aggravated 
by opposition, and an unforgiving temperament when affronts 
became personal, for each resented insults not only quicker, 
but longer, than injuries. But besides and more than all, 
there was in each an unwillingness, if not an inability, to 
express in manner or words the warm regard that lay 
beneath an undemonstrative exterior ; this gave them, I 
doubt not, an undefined fellowship of feeling, and yet threw 



GRANT AND FISH. „,, 

a certain constraint about their intimacy. They kne 
liked each other better, I believe, than either ever .said to 
the other. But such natures understand and appreciat 
haps as well as if they expressed more. 

Two grave questions, the English and the Cuban, were at 
once presented to the State Department. The f the 

English imbroglio, the quarrel with Motley and Sumner, in 
which Fish fully sympathized with Grant, the Treaty of 
Washington, and the Arbitration at Geneva — all this I have 
attempted to record. The subject profoundly interested the 
Secretary of State, and all the adjustment was left to him. 
Grant approved of every step that was taken, though 
times he required to be convinced; but he was in a 
with Fish at every critical moment. In the personal phases 
of the controversy the feelings of both became enlisted, and 
they were brought into closer relations because the}- received 
and repelled the same assaults. Grant had the soldier's 
feeling of camaraderie very strong for those who s 
dangers, and Fish was always sturdily loyal. Even 
Grant determined on a course that Fish would 
have advised, the Secretary stanchly supported his chief; 
not, of course, against his developed convictions, but more 
than once without any personal interest of his own. 

The Cuban danger, however, Fish fought from the b 
ning. Rawlins was very anxious to take sides with the 
Cubans in their struggle for independence, and others in the 
Cabinet followed his lead. He looked to the eventual annex- 
ation of Cuba by the United States and did everything in his 
power to precipitate steps that could not be reversed. He 
was even willing to risk the possibility of war with Spain, 
but Fish thought we had too recently emerged from a CO 
at home to engage in another abroad. He was not 
acquiring Cuba under other circumstances, as I shall s 
but he did not want the island at the expense of w 
daily at this "time. He therefore frowned upon 



234 



GRANT IN TEACE. 



to aid the insurgents. Grant at first leaned very strongly to 
the views of Rawlins, and there were many of the President's 
friends and advisers who concurred with the Secretary of 
War. At one time the issue was almost decided in favor of 
Rawlins, but the development of the English question gave 
Fish a powerful argument. He urged that with trouble on our 
hands with Spain, we could not possibly deal frankly and 
fearlessly with England ; that the claims against England 
were the result of our own war and should be settled definitely 
before we turned to the acquisition of further territory at the 
price that Cuba would at that time inevitably cost. This 
view was one that would be apt to affect Grant, and Fish 
thought that it convinced him, as it certainly did one or two 
of the Cabinet ; and just when the cogency of the argument 
was felt by the President, Rawlins died. His mantle as the 
friend of Cuba fell on no Elisha. The insurgents never 
found another friend so powerful or earnest ; the insurrection 
languished without the aid of America, and Spain remained 
firm in her seat on the unhappy island. 

The St. Domingo scheme shared the fate of the Cuban 
enterprise, although the former was accepted as an Adminis- 
tration measure. There was a great outcry at the time that 
improper motives instigated the urgency of the President and 
his friends for the acquisition of St. Domingo. I fancy no 
one now believes that Grant was corrupt in his earnestness, 
and I have never known any proof that others were ; but 
Cuban bonds were certainly distributed with a lavish hand 
among those who it was thought could aid the purpose of the 
Patriots. Men high in position and public estimation accepted 
these bonds and afterward advocated the recognition of Cuban 
independence. 

Even a foreign Minister was at one time the custodian 
and dispenser of four million dollars' worth of them, and the 
fact came to the knowledge of the Government. The Minis- 
ter was summoned and informed that the Administration was 



GRANT AND FISH. 

aware of his complicity, and that if the ooncis remained in 
his keeping four and twenty hours his excellency would re- 
ceive his passports. His excellency made haste within the 
appointed time to place the papers where they could never 
again be of use to the insurrectionary party; and during the 
remainder of his mission he was careful not to dabble in the 
affairs of stranger nations, nor to foment as a foreign Minis- 
ter troubles between other governments and that to which he 
was accredited. 

After the English question was disposed of Fish deter- 
mined to leave the Cabinet. Grant's first term was appr 
ing a close; the President had been re-elected, and the S 
tary felt that he could with honor withdraw from the 
of state, having achieved a great diplomatic success and 
relieved his chief from the anxieties that pressed so heavily 
when the subordinate accepted office. Grant was unwilli 
part with his Secretary of State, but Fish persisted in his 
intention, and one day when they were aloiu r he 

handed the President his resignation in a closed letter. This 
was just before a Cabinet meeting, and Grant took the 
but said nothing. When the other members of the Cabinet 
entered, he asked each in turn for his budget, bul 
Fish, who according to etiquette should have ben. 
addressed. Then the President said: "I have a letter 
the Secretary of State. I suppose I know its contents, and 
I am very sorry to receive it." But he had a matter, h 
tinued, upon which he desired to consult the other mei 
of the Cabinet. 

Fish accepted this as his own dismissal, and 
leave, not expecting to enter the Cabinet chamber 
as Secretary of State. But the next day he r 
letter signed by every member of the Senate exc 
urging him to remain in his position. This was tl 
which the President desired to discuss with his min 
and the dismissal, as Fish thought it at the tin.,. 



2 36 GRANT IN PEACE. 

waggish design on the part of Grant to surprise his friend. 
He was always fond of surprising those whom he liked 
by his favors or his acts of friendship, and the vein of humor 
that ran through his character was very perceptible in 
incidents like these. Fish remained in the Cabinet. 

In the year 1870 Mr. Paul Forbes, a man prominent 
in the business and social circles of his time, made known to 
the Government his intimacy with General Prim, then 
Premier of Spain. He also communicated certain intima- 
tions that the Spanish potentate might not be averse to 
negotiate for the disposal of Cuba to the United States, 
if the terms could be made advantageous, and the Castilian 
pride should not be inopportunely aroused. There were 
some pourparlers on the subject, and it was finally determined 
to send Forbes to Madrid in such a way as not to commit the 
Government, but to sound the Premier further as to his views. 
General Sickles, the Minister to Spain, was informed of the 
plan, and was directed to assist in its execution, but to be 
careful that the relations of the two countries should not 
be compromised. The Spanish temper was known to be 
hot and suspicious as well as arrogant, and Prim must 
manage his part of the affair with consummate delicacy. 

Forbes started for Europe, but was unable to restrain his 
elation at being intrusted with so important a business. 
When he arrived at Paris he had the indiscretion to reveal 
his errand, and before he reached Madrid the story of the 
proposed sale of Cuba was noised abroad. This at first almost 
balked the enterprise. Prim was frightened for his hold 
on power ; he had not yet prepared the minds of his country- 
men for the abandonment of the Faithful Isle. Still Sickles 
took up the negotiations and with great skill mended the 
broken threads; there seemed a fair prospect of success. 
The offer was absolutely made by Spain that the Cubans 
should be allowed to purchase Cuba, the United States to 
guarantee the purchase bonds, and the matter was under 






GRANT AND FISH. 

consideration by the United States when Prim v. 

ated. I was repeatedly assured in Cuba that he had been 

shot because he contemplated the sale. Be that as it may, 

with his death the scheme fell through, and it has not since 

been revived. Cuba remains to-day the most miserably 

oppressed bit of soil on earth under what is called a civilized 

government. 

No further matter of equal importance in our foreign 
relations arose during Grant's Administration. Amid the 
disasters and calumnies that clustered around the last years 
of his second term, Fish remained stanch to his chief. He 
was opposed to Grant's standing for a third term immediately 
after a second, perhaps as much because he thought the Presi- 
dent would be defeated if he appealed to the country then, as 
on account of any disapprobation of the principle. lie cer- 
tainly in 1880 supported the renomination of Grant ; but at the 
close of Grant's second Administration Fish recommended his 
retirement. During all the anxieties and doubts in regard to 
the election of a successor Fish was in the full confidence 
of his chief ; and he was by Grant's side when he left the 
White House. From the Executive Mansion the ex-Pi si-* 
dent and Mrs. Grant were driven to Fish's house, ami re- 
mained for several weeks his guests, as eight years before he 
and Mrs. Fish had been guests of General Grant, little dream- 
ing then of the relations they were destined to assume. 

While Grant was engaged upon his memoirs he v. 
some passages of a political character which seemed to me of 
so much consequence that I urged him to discuss them with 
his most important political friends, and he determined to 
read them to Fish, but for some reason this intention was 
not carried out. Months afterward, when Grant th 
he was dying, and his family were gathered around him to 
receive his last words, he stammered: "I su] ' have 

not more than half an hour to live, and I wish to say th; 
I want the political passages in my book submitted 



238 GRANT IX PEACE. 

Governor Fish to see if there is too much acrimony. He 
may correct them or strike them out altogether as he 
chooses." General Grant, however, revived after this and 
lived several months longer, during which he was able to 
resume his work, but in what he believed were his dying 
moments he gave this great proof of confidence and respect 
to his friend and counselor, his Secretary of State. 



V 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 

AFTER Grant became President he did not for some 
weeks occupy the Executive Mansion as a residence, 
but of course the official business was transacted there. His 
first official reception was one for the Diplomatic • Corps. It 
was not very formal. I had called on the various chiefs of 
legation at his request and notified them that the President 
and Mrs. Grant would receive the members of the corps and 
their families on a certain afternoon. It was desirable that 
the new President should make their acquaintance, and this 
was the democratic substitute for what in Europe would have 
been a "court." I went in the President's open carriage, 
which was a conspicuous, light-colored vehicle, and when I 
visited the Haytien representative my arrival created a com- 
motion. I suspect that preceding administrations had hardly 
accorded the same recognition to the fellows of the freed- 
men, and the dusky democrat had perhaps not long been 
used to considering himself an ambassador. At any rate, 
when I entered and made known my errand, the diplomatist 
rose and dusted my chair. Soulouque himself began life as 
a servant. 

Washburne, the Secretary of State for a week, had 
already given up his place to Fish, who had not lived in 
Washington for many years and was therefore unacquainted 
with the foreign representatives. As I knew them all, I was 
selected to introduce them to Mr. Fish, who then made the 
presentations to the President. They came, many of them, 

(239) 



240 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



in morning dress, and some I thought were rather too home- 
spun in their attire. In fact, more than one member of the 
British Legation affected an indifference to etiquette in regard 
to the President and his family that was more democratic than 
even democrats approved. I remember Lady Thornton say. 
ing to me at a party at Mrs. Fish's, when Mrs. Grant was 
present : " How different all this would be in England ! 
There nobody would dream of being seated while the Queen 
was standing." Yet "my lady" remained in her chair when 
the wife of the President entered the room, and a good many 
Americans rose. I doubt, however, if at that time ' Lady 
Thornton had ever been at court in London. I was assured 
in England that this wife of a diplomatist once declared she 
had met only two ladies in all America; whereupon a gen- 
uine aristocrat exclaimed: "But Lady Thornton is hardly a 
judge — she has known so few at home." Her ladyship, you 
see, was born in the middle class. 

General Grant, however, as President, desired to be rec- 
ognized as Head of the State ; he was always served first at 
his own table, and of course preceded everybody. He him- 
self determined the precedence at his dinners, for he assumed 
as much as any foreign sovereign or any host at home the 
right to place his guests as he chose. He insisted always 
on making a distinction for personal reasons if he pleased ; 
though he regarded public station and public services, he yet 
held that if he preferred to pay any one a compliment he was 
at liberty to do so. At a bridal dinner I have known him 
place the newly-married man on the right of Mrs. Grant, 
although the Secretary of State was present, while he him- 
self took in the bride from among a company that included 
the wives of Senators and Cabinet ministers. So, too, he 
sometimes regulated the precedence of foreign ministers 
without regard to the Almanach de Gotha or the Congress 
of Vienna, but according to a certain code of his own. This, 
it is true, was before he had been abroad. Had there been a 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 0/lr 

241 

third term after his European experiences I am inclined to 
think he would have deferred more to the diplomatic idea. 
But he had a feeling that as President it was for him to 
determine, and he acted even in etiquettes without fear or 
anxiety. He thought that he made the etiquette, and I don't 
see why a President has not this right as well as any poten- 
tate of another sort. 

Up to his time Presidents had never visited or dined out 
or gone to any private parties, but Grant declared at once 
that he did not intend to be caged because he was Chief 
Magistrate. He accepted the invitations of his Cabinet and 
of a few others, either especial friends or persons whom he 
wished to honor. Yet he refused to return the visit of the 
son of the Queen of England when Prince Arthur, as he 
was then called, the Duke of Connaught now, was in Wash- 
ington. I was in America at the time and was anxious that 
Grant should make the visit. I proved to him that sover- 
eigns abroad paid such compliments to members of royal 
houses; but he did not think the democratic Head of the 
State should recognize a royal boy of only nineteen in this 
way. The British Minister especially desired that the cere- 
mony should be performed, but Grant persisted in his re- 
fusal. He went, however, to a ball given in the Prince's 
honor, and he invited the youth to a dinner, on each occasion 
giving him Mrs. Grant for a partner, but he maintained that 
democratic dignity would not allow him to make a formal 
call. He seemed to think this would be a recognition of the 
royal principle which it was imperative on him to deny. 

I remember that afterward in England this same young 
man failed to call on General Grant. Tis true he was not in 
London, but he was not a day's journey away, and having 
been so warmly received in America, the absence of the 
civility seemed significant. Lady Augusta Stanley, a warm 
personal friend of the Queen, corresponded with me while 
the Prince was in America, and, knowing that I was on duty 
16 



242 GRANT IN PEACE. 

at the White House, she asked me to do what I could to 
make the visit successful. After the Prince had left I wrote 
to her stating that he had made a good impression, and Lady 
Augusta replied expressing Her Majesty's gratification, so 
that I fancy the lack of the President's visit gave no umbrage. 
Still, it may be that Jesse Grant's experience at Windsor was 
the corollary of the Prince's visit unreturned. 

I remained at the White House during the first three 
months of Grant's Administration, after which I spent four 
months in England, and then I was on duty again at the Execu- 
tive Mansion from October until May. After that I was 
there as a visitor on only a few occasions in 1875 ; so that my 
recollections of the life at the White House are mostly those 
of the first and second years of Grant's Presidency. I saw 
the first Cabinet in power and their families in position. 
Some of these, people of undoubted ability and character, yet 
long unfamiliar with the life of the great world, never ac- 
quired that ease of manner which is so exquisite, whether 
the gift of nature or the result of art ; but others were per- 
sons early used to elegant associations and fitted to adorn as 
well as worthily occupy the positions they enjoyed. But Mrs. 
Grant was like the General, a good deal of an autocrat in 
a certain way. If she liked the suggestions made by such 
women as Mrs. Fish or Mrs. Robeson she accepted them, but 
she felt that she herself was responsible for the result, and en- 
titled to decide the means ; and they of course deferred to her 
decisions. Whatever the etiquette or the custom, it either 
had the sanction of the President or of Mrs. Grant, or it was 
not introduced at all. I fancy indeed .that most of the usages 
were those that had long prevailed, or else were the sugges- 
tion of one of the heads of the establishment themselves. 

Those usages must have been generally acceptable, for 
the greater part of the people who had lived longest in Wash- 
ington, and had been familiar with society there under many 
administrations, found themselves very much at home at the 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 2 A\ 

White House during General Grant's official terms. A few 
with bitter memories stayed away and criticised; but that 
charming element — the old Washington families, made up 
for the most part of the survivors and relatives of military 
and naval and other official people of the past — all gathered 
around Mrs. Grant, and liked the geniality and simplicity of 
the General. Some of the political opponents, and I believe 
not a few strangers who came for a while to Washington and 
found no immediate access to the intimate circle and life at 
the White House, carped a little, or censured what they heard 
of but did not see; but the "good company" of Washington, 
— by far the best company in America, — made the White 
House its center while Grant was President and Mrs. Grant its 
mistress. The old army people found themselves with a com- 
rade; the soldiers of the war and their families were always 
welcome, and when the children of the President grew up 
there were young people and their visitors to make the house 
gay. There was a brilliant wedding for "Nellie Grant," and 
the eldest child of Colonel Grant was born in the Executive 
Mansion. 

For the home life went on under all the pressure of pub- 
lic business and all the demands of public ceremony. I 
passed a few days at Long Branch in 1875, and saw much of 
my old chief in his family life. I found it nearly the same as 
before he was President. The step, indeed, was not so great 
for him as for others ; from the position of General-in-Chief, 
at that time the most important but one in the country, he 
merely passed to the President's chair. I think, too, that as 
he became used to his station some of the formality which at 
first I thought I observed wore away. I recollect dining with 
him more than once in Washington in 1875. His table was 
always laid so that half a dozen unexpected guests might be 
entertained, and one Sunday we lunched informally in the 
library, no one but himself and me. "He had just finished 
writing the letter in which he declined a nomination for a 



244 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



third term. The paper had not been read as yet to any of 
his Cabinet, and Mrs. Grant did not know of his decision. 
He asked my opinion of the letter, and I told him that 
I thought it was a good one if he had determined to with- 
draw from the contest, but I had supposed he would not so 
determine. The letter was sent to the press the same day 
without Mrs. Grant's knowledge, for the General was sure it 
would be disagreeable to her, and he wished his decision to be 
irrevocable before she learned it. Years afterward, when I 
told her I had heard that letter before it was sent, she re- 
proached me, more than half in earnest, for not striving 
harder to prevent its issue. 

It was a simple domestic life that went on in the upper 
part of that historic house during those eight years. The 
business half of the mansion is connected closely with the 
family rooms. The Cabinet chamber is next the library, 
which in Grant's day was not used for official purposes, but 
more as a family parlor. Many informal discussions of 
important affairs have occurred in that library, and many 
scenes that would interest the world, if the survivors would 
tell what they know. The few bed-chambers were always 
occupied ; now and then a guest could be invited to sleep, 
but the demands of the family prevented as much hospitality 
of this sort as either the General or Mrs. Grant would have 
desired. " 

Below, the State apartments were often used; the East 
Room of course on grand occasions, and the Red parlor was 
open of an evening to many personal visitors. All the State 
dinners were given that custom requires, and sometimes the 
State dining-room was opened for a family party at Christmas 
or an entertainment to personal friends, while the ordinary 
dining-room was hardly ever without a guest of importance. 
For Grant liked to discuss informally with a Senator or 
Cabinet Minister or even with a political opponent the affairs 
in which he was peculiarly interested. Cigars always fol- 



LIFE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 2 .* 

lowed dinner, and sometimes billiards or cards with a few- 
intimates. Grant spent more than his income during his 
first Administration and saved very little in the last four 
years, when the salary was doubled. 

Mrs. Grant introduced at her receptions the custom that 
still prevails on these occasions of inviting women of distinc- 
tion to assist the mistress of the White House — Senators' 
wives and the wives and daughters of Cabinet officers or 
personal friends. Before her time the President's wife re- 
ceived without this graceful surrounding. Indeed, the White 
House had hardly been so popular in a long while as in the 
days when I knew it under the Grant regime. During the 
war Mrs. Lincoln saw few besides the political adherents of 
the Administration, and for various reasons " society," as it 
is called, was greatly interrupted. Under Mr. Johnson also 
the acerbities and acrimonies of politics prevented many from 
visiting the White House, and there was at that time no 
absolute mistress to preside; Mrs. Johnson was never visible, 
and her daughters were not women with a taste for the duties 
of their position. When Mrs. Grant came to her place the 
dissensions of the war period were abating ; people of great 
military and naval and civil eminence with their families 
crowded around the new Administration, which became the 
nucleus of the most distinguished and delightful society that 
has been seen at the capital in at least a quarter of a century. 

The attractions of such a society have since induced 
many people of wealth to make Washington their home, 
some of whom have only wealth to offer as a claim to admis- 
sion there. In the days I tell of nobody cared who was rich 
or who was poor. Power was so much more important than 
money ; great fame, great deeds, so much more distinguished 
than fine houses or fine clothes, that society was " good " in 
the best sense of the word. What did a mere millionaire 
amount to in a company that included Sherman or Farragut 
or Seward or Sumner, a Chief Justice, a General of the Army, 



246 GRANT IN PEACE. 

a Secretary of State or of the Treasury ? Some of the great- 
est people had the humblest houses; even diplomatists lived 
over cooks' shops and gave dinners to the Cabinet on china 
that they saw every night in the week at each other's tables. 
Women with names that will never die wore the plainest 
gowns, and breeding and wit and elegance went about on 
foot to parties that were finer in all the elements of real 
society than can be seen to-day in Washington or New York. 
The life at the White House under Grant had something to 
do with this. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



GRANT AND HAYES. 



GRANT and Hayes first met in 1865, at the time of the 
Grand Review in Washington, when Hayes was a 
Congressman-elect. During the next few years they were 
always on friendly terms, and after the nomination of Hayes 
for the Presidency Grant gave him a cordial support. Until 
the nominations were made, however, all Grant's influence 
had been thrown in favor of Conkling, and against Bristow 
and Blaine. He had declined to allow his name to go before 
the convention, but he naturally took a keen interest in the 
selection of the candidate who might succeed him. Conkling 
had been his especial advocate and defender in the Senate 
during the period when many fell away, while for Bristow he 
entertained an especial bitterness. He looked upon Bristow 
as a Cabinet Minister who had become not only the rival of 
his chief, but the instigator of all the fierce and personal 
attacks directed against himself during the concluding years 
of his Administration. I was out of the country and had no 
personal knowledge of the matter. I am far from declaring 
that Grant's feeling was justified by facts; I simply record 
the sentiment, which was one of the most intense he ever 
knew. But for Blaine at this time Grant had no animosity ; 
he opposed him because he was the competitor of Conkling. 
When, however, Hayes became the candidate by a com- 
promise, Grant was loyal to his party and to the decision of 
its representatives. No one suspected him, and few accused 
him, of using his office illegitimately in behalf of Hayes ; but 

(247) 



248 GRANT IN PEACE. 

he made his preference known, and urged his friends to sup- 
port the new Republican standard-bearer. His action was 
fully appreciated ; Hayes, in his letter of acceptance, had 
pledged himself not to become a candidate for a second term, 
but afterwards feared that this might be regarded as a criti- 
cism of Grant's course in accepting a renomination in 1S72. 
He therefore wrote to Grant, and explained that he intended 
no reflection on the conduct of his predecessor, but that, by 
making a second term for himself impossible, he hoped to 
secure the support of other and expectant candidates, who 
would perceive that they also had their opportunities. 

When the first announcement of Tilden's election was 
made, a day or two after the vote, Grant, like a good citizen, 
was prepared to acquiesce in the defeat of his party, but the 
uncertainty as to the result which immediately arose made 
him, of course, anxious. He invited important persons of 
both parties to visit the disputed States, and to investigate 
and report the situation ; but thei^ statements were so con- 
flicting that he determined it would be improper for him to 
form a conclusion, much more to offer a judgment. The 
position he held during the crisis, which at times almost 
threatened civil war, was extremely delicate, and he resolved 
in no way to attempt to affect the result after the election 
had occurred and while the decision was yet contested. 

The election occurred on the 7th of November, and on 
the 18th he wrote to me at London : "I expect to be in Eng- 
land early in July, when I shall hope to see you, if my suc- 
cessor has not decapitated you before that. The question of 
successor is not yet fully determined, nor can it be until we 
get the official canvass of the States of Louisiana, South 
Carolina, and Florida." As the contest waxed furious he 
was approached on one side and threatened on the other, but 
could not be induced to swerve from the line he had marked 
out for himself. He held that he was in no way the judge of 
the elections, but he was determined to preserve the peace 



GRANT AND HAYES. 24 q 

of the country, and watched every step and every indication 
of feeling, North and South, with the closest solicitude. 

Finally, Congress concluded to appoint the Electoral 
Commission and to abide by its decision, and then Grant felt 
that he had a definite duty to perform. He approved the 
appointment of the commission as the only means to avoid 
fierce strife, and in spite of the probability that its decision 
would be in favor of the Democratic candidate; but when, 
by a change in the composition of the Commission, the choice 
of a Republican became almost inevitable, he was equally 
inflexible in the determination that the decisisn should be 
enforced. In the dilemma into which the country was thrust 
Congress was the only authority that could determine any- 
thing, and the President, Grant held, was the executive of 
the Congressional will. Accordingly, he made every prepa- 
ration to carry out that will, whichever way it turned. Had 
Tilden been declared President by the Commission, Grant 
would assuredly have taken every step to inaugurate him 
which he afterward took to inaugurate Hayes.* 

As to the exact legality of the Commission I doubt if Grant 
ever expressed an opinion. He did not profess to be a law- 
yer, and was certainly unversed in technicalities and abstruse 
reasonings ; but he felt now as he had felt about the consti- 
tutionality of several executive acts during the war — that 



* I never met Mr. Tilden until he went abroad after the inauguration of 
Hayes. I was then Consul-General at London, and called on him as on a man 
under whom I might perhaps have served, or who, more probably, would have 
used his power to remove me. He received me cordially, and was evidently 
pleased at the mark of respect from a political opponent. He said that he rec- 
ognized all of the American representatives abroad who had served under 
Grant. They had been appointed by a President ; but he visited none of the 
nominees of Hayes. 

He spoke with respect of General Grant and of his services, although he 
must have known that, after the result of the Electoral Commission was 
declared, Grant was determined to place Hayes in the Presidential chair. But 
he was probably equally certain that if the decision had been different Grant 
would just as certainly have done all in his power to install him. 



250 GRANT IN PEACE. 

they were essential to the salvation of the country, and that 
the Constitution was devised to secure that end, not to sub- 
vert it. He believed that there was no other practicable way 
of settling the question at issue in which both parties would 
acquiesce ; no other arbitrament but arms, and this he was de- 
termined to avert. Therefore, when Congress laid down the 
law he executed it. 

I remember talking with Motley on the subject at the time 
in London. Like most of the disappointed or disaffected 
Republicans, Motley held that Tilden had been elected, but 
he said bitterly that made no difference, for Grant was in 
power, and he would certainly put Hayes into place. It was 
an unfair accusation, but not unnatural, I suppose, in one who 
thought he had himself suffered unjustly at Grant's hands; 
still, it showed a belief that Grant would execute his deter- 
mination. The country at home had the same belief in his 
inflexibility, and felt that he would carry out whatever policy 
he might adopt. Thus after it was known that he had accepted 
the decision of the Commission both sides breathed freer: 
they knew that whatever happened there would be no war. 
All Americans abroad, Democrats as well as Republicans, ex- 
pressed this confidence ; I often heard political opponents de- 
clare they were glad that Grant was in power, for at least 
he would preserve peace ; and perhaps there were some who 
were not sorry to be restrained. It was no reproach to their 
courage to submit to what Grant was sure to enforce. His 
presence in the Presidential chair at this time doubtless did 
much, not only to allay the anxietyof the country, but to pro- 
duce and preserve that peace which he and all patriots desired. 

He had, indeed, a few foolish friends, personal or political, 
who talked about his holding over, retaining the Presidency 
himself and ordering a new election, assuming a sort of dicta- 
torship ; but Grant never for a moment contemplated any un- 
constitutional step, and when the Commission decided that 
Hayes had been elected, he made ready at once to secure his 



GRANT AND HAYES. 251 

inauguration. He conferred with his Cabinet and with Sher- 
man, then General-in-Chief of the army. But there were no 
serious indications of resistance to the verdict of the court 
created by the representatives of the people, and no need 
arose for extensive military preparations. There was not 
more than the complement of a single regiment in Washing- 
ton on the 4th of March. There were troops enough within 
reach to be summoned if required, but no show of preparation 
was made to invite or provoke disturbance. 

The 4th of March that year fell on a Sunday, and Mr. 
Hayes arrived at Washington only the Friday before. Grant 
telegraphed in advance and invited him to dinner on Satur- 
day. The President-elect was requested to name any persons 
whom he would like to be asked to meet him ; he availed him- 
self of the courtesy and mentioned about a dozen. General 
and Mrs. Grant selected the other guests, and the company 
numbered altogether about thirty. 

It was a critical moment in the history of the country, and 
the party that met on that 3d of March was not without a 
certain excitement of feeling, though none appeared on the 
surface. The election of Hayes was still denied by immense 
numbers of citizens. The Democratic leaders, with marked 
and elevated patriotism, had accepted the decision and recom- 
mended acquiescence to their followers, but there was a sul- 
lenness abroad that made many feel uneasy. It was not so 
long since the country had emerged from civil war. Mr. 
Tilden had been publicly recommended to take the oath of 
office at New York, and thus raise the question of the legality 
of Hayes's inauguration at the Capital. This possibility was 
known, and to meet the contingency the Chief Justice of the 
United States was invited to the dinner at the White House. 
During the day Mr. Fish approached Mr. Hayes, by the desire 
of Grant, and reminded him that the public inauguration could 
not with propriety take place on a Sunday. But it was ex- 
tremely important that no opportunity to dispute the legality 



252 GRANT IN PEACE. 



of any of the proceedings should be allowed ; the Secretary of 
State, therefore, inquired whether Mr. Hayes would take the 
oath of office then (on Saturday), or on Sunday, the 4th of 
March. Mr. Hayes replied that he could not possibly be sworn 
in on a Sunday. Accordingly, in the evening, before dinner, 
the President-elect and the Chief Justice, and one or two 
others, went into the Red room, apart from the rest of the 
company, and on the 3d of March Hayes took the oath of 
office before the Chief Justice and was inaugurated President. 
On the 5th of March he renewed the oath formally at the 
Capitol. Grant accompanied him thither and returned with 
him to the White House, where a large party lunched together, 
after which Grant made way for Hayes. 

Grant had done all that was proper in his position to 
assist in the election of Hayes, and very much indeed to 
facilitate his installation, and Hayes appreciated this course. 
A few days after the 4th of March, the new President invited 
Grant to say if there were any personal friends in office 
whom he would like to have retained. Grant named about 
half a dozen, among them his brother-in-law, Mr. Cramer, the 
Minister to Denmark. My own name as Consul-General at 
London was also mentioned. These requests Mr. Hayes 
religiously observed, though in my case, at least, great press- 
ure was brought to induce him to break his pledge. My 
place was wanted by two Cabinet Ministers for their own 
friends, and was actually offered to Chester A. Arthur, then 
collector at New York, by Sherman, the Secretary of the 
Treasury. Arthur declined it, and I never heard that Sher- 
man's offer was authorized by Hayes. Mr. Sherman, how- 
ever, was under no obligation to me, nor indeed to Gen- 
eral Grant, beyond that which every citizen of the country 
shared. 

The new Administration showed Grant all proper civilities 
during his stay abroad. Naval vessels were placed at his 
disposal in European and Asiatic waters, and diplomatic and 



GRANT AND HAYES. 2 -, 

consular officers were instructed by the State Department to 
pay him every honor in the countries to which they were 
were accredited. But the policy of Hayes's Government 
Grant always thought reflected on his own. An avowed and 
personal enemy of the ex-President was made Secretary of 
the Interior, while the Secretary of State and the Secretary 
of the Treasury were men for whom he had no personal 
preferences. He also disliked many of Hayes's inferior 
appointments, and never professed any admiration for his 
Administration. He was especially mortified at the appoint- 
ment of Schurz as Secretary of the Interior; but he was out 
of power, and the influence of an incoming Secretary was 
greater than all the authority of the ex-President. 

I suppose this feeling on Grant's part was not unnatural ; 
after having been so long the Head of the State he could 
hardly share the partialities or prejudices of an Administra- 
tion which had its own aims and ambitions to foster, its own 
friends to appoint, its own loves and hates to gratify. It 
was Hayes's Administration, not Grant's ; and Grant, who 
had more than a spice of human nature in his composition, 
liked it less than if it had consulted his wishes or views 
instead of its own. He felt, beside, whether justly or not I 
do not venture to decide, that his assistance having been 
indispensable to the installation of Hayes, he should have 
been more considered afterward. He thought that the 
reversal of much of his own policy was not only unwise but 
offensive, and he endured his share of the mortification that 
comes to every man who has filled high public place and 
descends to a position in which he has no longer honors or 
emoluments to dispense, and loses the obsequious homage 
which follows only power. 

But he offered no more than an occasional criticism of 
Mr. Hayes or his Government, and never opposition, except 
to Schurz, his dislike for whom was doubtless returned in 
kind. Schurz was indeed one of the men for whom Grant 



254 GRANT IN PEACE. 

conceived a violent hate, yet even Schurz called at Grant's 
house to inquire for him while the great soldier lay dying. 

Mr. Hayes also went to the house of his predecessor on 
a visit of sympathy at the same sad time, and he attended 
Grant's funeral 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 

THE close of Grant's Presidential career elicited a remark- 
able comment from the great French statesman Thiers, 
who was at that time, though no longer President, perhaps 
the most important personage in France; almost controlling 
parties in his own country and watching with an acute and 
intelligent interest the great political crisis on this side the 
seas. General Sickles was then residing in Paris and in 
^the habit of meeting the ex-President frequently. To him 
Thiers declared that no country in Europe could have passed 
through the situation which agitated America without a seri- 
ous disturbance of the state. He thought it possible that 
France or Germany or England might have weathered storms 
equal to those of our War of the Rebellion, and even have 
passed through the difficulties of the Reconstruction period, 
but he knew of no other country that could have withstood 
the dangers of a disputed election, when the parties were so 
nearly matched, and so soon after a civil war. Thiers did 
not hesitate to attribute much of the good fortune of the 
United States in this emergency to the wisdom and courage 
and moderation of Grant. 

I have indeed heard it doubted whether General Grant's 
course at this crisis had much to do with the result ; but let 
any one suppose that the Head of the State had acted with 
indiscretion or indecision, had shown undue partiality, had 
instigated on one hand or aroused on the other the passions 
of either party, each only waiting to be started into a blaze ; 

(^55) 



256 GRANT IN PEACE. 

let it be supposed that Buchanan or Johnson had held the 
reins, or any one of half a dozen prominent men on either 
side — Sumner, or Wade, or Stanton, or Toombs — how easily 
the horrors of civil war might have been brought home — 
this time to the North. The quarrel then would have been, 
not between two different sections of the Republic, but 
between enemies in every city and street and household. 

It is quite as much by what he left undone in civil 
affairs, as by what he did, that Grant is to be judged. His 
singular power of restraint, backed by his acknowledged 
energy and force, was of enormous advantage to the country 
at times like those in which he performed the duties of the 
Executive. And although his Presidental career is often 
harshly criticised by some who admire his military ability, 
though he was supported, and sometimes seemed to be 
surrounded, by many whose association conferred neither 
honor on himself nor benefit on the country : though there 
were acts in his Administration which he publicly admitted 
were blunders, history will be far from recording his political 
career as a failure. 

He took up the cares of state not only immediately after a 
convulsion that was one of the greatest in history, but after 
the situation had been complicated to the very verge of rev- 
olution by the struggle between two coordinate branches of 
the Government ; after the disruption of a party, the impeach- 
ment and trial of a President, the revival of much of the 
bitterness of the war. No task could be more difficult or 
delicate than his, at such a juncture, and it can at least 
be said that after eight years of power he handed over to his 
successor the Government of a country so far pacified and 
reconciled that even the awful shape of a disputed election 
had been appeased. The States were all restored to the 
Union, and Reconstruction, whatever its merits or demerits, 
was accomplished. That measure was not initiated by Grant, 
nor were all its provisions or results those which he would 



LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. ~-~ 

have recommended or desired, but Congress laid down the 
law and General Grant as President executed it. During the 
twelve years of his civil career, for in reality this began with 
Johnson's accession to power, he performed a task fully equal 
in importance to the country to whatever he achieved in war. 
A man with less sense and patriotism, or more ambition, 
might in his position, and with his immense popularity, have 
undone much that he had accomplished in the war. But 
Grant's self-abnegation was fully equal to Washington's at 
the close of the Revolution. 

It is true no crown was ever offered him, and the country 
would certainly have hurled him into insignificance or worse 
had he attempted to seize one; but there were a thousand op- 
portunities to increase his prerogative and confirm his power 
which he steadily refused. All who knew him closely at the 
times when temptation might have been strong with other 
men, will assuredly testify that the thought of self-aggrandize- 
ment was always furthest from his mind. He had, indeed, an 
apparent lack of ambition, and even of aspiration, that amount- 
ed almost to indifference; a singular moderation running 
through his whole character, which some considered stolidity ; 
but which tempered what without it would have been harsher 
qualities, and produced all the results of wisdom, patience, 
judgment, and even far-sighted patriotism. He saw, even 
plainer than his political friends, the possibilities that told in 
his own favor and he put them away. 

Shortly after the close of the war I was present when 
Charles Sumner proposed to him that a painting should be 
placed at the Capitol to represent the surrender of Lee ; but 
Grant declared that he was unwilling that any commemora- 
tion of the defeat and disaster of one section of the country 
should be perpetuated at the Capitol. Again, a few days be- 
fore his first inauguration, Mr. Blaine, then Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, formally suggested that Congress 
should allow Grant a leave of absence from the army for four 
17 



258 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



years, so that at the expiration of his Presidential term he 
could resume his place as General-in-Chief, with the rank 
and position created especially for him. But Grant said he 
could not sleep at night if he kept Sherman and Sheridan and 
all the other officers lower down out of the promotion which 
his retention of office would prohibit to each of them. He 
declared that they had won their promotion as rightfully as 
he had his own, and he gave up his rank and appointed Sher- 
man the day after he was inaugurated. 

People have forgotten his popularity after the close of the 
war, but at that time almost anything that could have been 
proposed to honor him would have been approved, and it was 
his very unselfishness, his purity in public matters that after- 
ward made his private misfortunes possible. 

But during the last years of his Presidency the reaction 
that comes so inevitably to the most fortunate of men almost 
overwhelmed him. Political friends became enemies, private 
and personal ones used their connection with him to advance 
themselves and their interests illegitimately; and the public 
believed far worse things of him and of them than there was 
cause for. I was away from the country during all this 
period, but I know how keenly he felt the loss of his popu- 
larity, of the change in the public feeling toward himself. 
After it was decided that he was not to become a candidate 
for a third term, he was extremely anxious to lay down his 
responsibilities and his duties, wearied of public life and pub- 
lic cares. But then came the great trouble of the closing 
months of his Administration, the disputed election, carrying 
danger, anxiety, and the possibility of strife into the very last 
hours of his Presidency. Finally this was averted, and he 
was able to transfer his great office to a successor without 
difficulty or disturbance. 

He and Mrs. Grant retired with dignity from the place 
they had filled, and performed their last social duties at the 
Executive Mansion gracefully. I have already told that they 



LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. ,- A 

2 59 

gave a dinner to the President-elect on the 3d of March ; and 
while Grant attended to the grave political complications of 
the hour, and arranged for the private inauguration of his 
successor in advance of the public one, Mrs. Grant dispensed 
her parting hospitalities under these delicate and unwonted 
circumstances. She did not accompany her husband to the 
Capitol to see another man installed in the place which he 
had held ; and it may not be improper to say just here, that 
as perhaps any wife in her situation would have been, Mrs. 
Grant was unwilling to have her husband retire; she had 
desired him to become a candidate for another term, and the 
dignity with which she relinquished her own honors and place 
receives to my mind an added illustration when this senti- 
ment is known. 

She prepared a suitable entertainment for the new occu- 
pants of the Executive Mansion, on their return from the 
Capitol to take her place from her. She invited the members 
of General Grant's Cabinet and their families, her own 
especial associates during the years of her pre-eminence, as 
well as others whom she thought it would be agreeable to the 
new President to meet. She directed the establishment to 
be put in complete order so that its future mistress might find 
all that was necessary even to supply her table for at least a 
day ; and having superintended the removal of the personal 
effects of her own family, the lady who had presided so long 
at the White House was ready to receive her successor and 
the new President when they arrived from the inauguration. 

Then Mrs. Grant took the arm of President Hayes, and 
considering herself still the hostess, as she actually was, she 
sat at the head of the table. Ex-President Grant of course 
took in Mrs. Hayes, and after the luncheon, which was an 
entertainment befitting the occasion, General and Mrs. Grant 
bade good-bye to the house where they had spent so many 
proud and happy hours. Several of the ladies of the Cabinet 
told me of this scene, and confessed that they themselves 



2C0 GRANT IX PEACE. 

shed a few natural tears ; but Mrs. Grant kept up her spirit, 
and General Grant of course showed no more emotion than 
if he had been in the Wilderness. 

They drove in their own carriage to the house of Mr. 
Fish, where they remained nearly a month, the recipients of 
courtesies and invitations from the most distinguished mem- 
bers of that society of which they had so long been at the 
head. People could not do enough to honor them. States- 
men of all parties combined to show General Grant respect, 
and this was only the presage of the outbreak of admiration 
that swept over the land. Wherever the ex-President went 
he was the object of personal attention and popular demon- 
strations; and when his countrymen learned that he was 
going abroad, that the man who had so long been pre-emi- 
nent both in civil and military affairs was to leave them for 
a while, their enthusiasm became unbounded. Thousands 
can remember the scenes in Philadelphia at his departure; 
the dinners and banquets that succeeded each other for days ; 
the illustrious party that accompanied him down the Dela- 
ware ; the crowds of vessels of every character that escorted 
his own steamer for miles — an ovation such as no American 
had ever before received. Now that he was out of politics 
the country seemed determined to show to itself and to the 
world that it could appreciate the man who had done so much, 
not only to save it, but afterward to secure that result which 
more than any other one man he had assisted to achieve. 

If deeds are taken into account General Grant will be 
recognized hereafter as a statesman as well as a warrior. 
History may be searched in vain for an instance of pacifica- 
tion on so grand a scale and after so tremendous a convulsion 
— accomplished so completely and in so short a while 
under Grant; and two other great achievements of his 
Administration can never be blotted out. The country \\.;>- 
saved from the dishonor and misfortune which it is now 
universally admitted would have followed financial inflation — 



LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. 2 g, 

saved by Grant's courage in vetoing the measure against the 
advice of a majority of the most prominent of his political 
friends; and the United States came out of the long and at 
times dangerous diplomatic struggle with England with dignity 
and yet with peace assured, having won indemnity and apology 
from the foremost of modern nations. Results like these of a 
political Administration will be remembered when the petty 
squabbles that once seemed so important have sunk into their 
natural oblivion. 

On the day that I met General Grant in England, not 
three months after his retirement from the Presidency, he 
told me of the revulsion in public feeling at home in regard 
to himself. He spoke with a warmth and an evident satis- 
faction most unusual in him, from which I learned how acutely 
he must have felt the storm of unpopularity through which 
he had passed. "Why, Badeau," he said, "it was just as 
it was immediately after the war." He expressed besides 
a feeling of great relief at the freedom from public cares for 
the first time in sixteen years. He was glad, he declared, to 
be rid of the responsibilities and anxieties of office, to escape 
from the importunities and criticisms that are the shadow of 
prerogative. He soon forgot any provocations he thought he 
had received from a few in the recollection of the love and 
regard with which the people had welcomed him again to 
their more immediate fellowship. lie had always hated the 
trammels of high position, and now enjoyed the freedom from 
restraint which a private life secures ; and he looked forward 
with the eagerness of a boy to the pleasures of foreign travel 
and fresh experience. 

general grant to general badeau. 

Executive Mansion-, / 

Washington, Nov. 19, 187 1. » 
Dear Badeau, — As I have before assured you your lei 
are received and read with great pleasure, though I may not find- 



2 62 GRANT IN PEACE. 

time to answer many of them. The information asked for by you 
from the War Department Porter undertook to get, and has 
obtained so far as the clerks in the Department could work it out. 
But it does not satisfy Porter, and he now intends to go to the 
Department himself and work it up. This accounts for the delay. 

I have not yet written a line in my message. Will commence 
to-morrow, and hope to make it short. Everything in the country 
looks politically well at present. The most serious apprehension 
is from the awards that may be made by the Commissioners at 
Geneva and in Washington. Should they be largely in favor of 
the English it would at least cause much disappointment. In 
speaking of political matters, I do not of course allude to my own 
chances. It will be a happy day for me when I am out of political 
life. But I do feel a deep interest in the Republican party keep- 
ing control of office until the results of the war are acquiesced in 
by all political parties. When that is accomplished we can afford 
to quarrel about minor matters. . 

My family are all well and send you their kindest regards. 
Fred sailed for Europe on Friday last. He will be in England 
about May next and will stay there, I hope, long enough to do up 
the island pretty well. Yours truly, 

U. S. Grant. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

GRANT IN ENGLAND. 

WHEN General Grant determined to visit England after 
the close of his Presidency, I asked him to make my 
house his home as long as he remained in London. But he 
thought his party would be too large, and, as he expected to 
pass the summer in London, the visit might be too long. He 
promised, however, to stay with me if I would allow him to 
share the expense. He said we had messed together in the 
field, and there was no reason why we should not do it again. 
I was only too glad to have him with me on any terms, and 
told him he should decide. Circumstances afterward changed 

""this arrangement. He passed only three weeks under my 
roof, and for this period he consented to become my guest, 
for he knew the great pleasure it would give me; but he left 
America intending to go direct to my house, and to mess 
with me. 

Before he arrived at Queenstown, Mr. Pierrepont, the 
American Minister, who had also been Grant's Attorney- 
General, determined to ask the ex-President to stay with him. 
This would be so advantageous from a public point of view 
that I could offer no opposition. I met General Grant at 

"Liverpool, and he agreed with me that it was more appro- 
priate for him first to visit the Minister. Accordingly, he 
divided his time between us. 

Mr. Pierrepont had taken every step in advance to secure 
for his former chief a fitting reception. He often said to me, 
that if he had any influence General Grant should not be 

(263) 



264 GRANT IN PEACE. 

treated as the ex-Presidents were who had previously visited 
England. Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Van Buren had received 
little or no attention, because of the position they had held. 
They were both invited by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, 
but each was sent in to dinner without a lady and at the tail. 
of the procession. They were Mr. Fillmore and Mr. Van 
Buren, and nothing more. Mr. Pierrepont said, that in a 
country where such matters are regarded as important, he 
was not willing that General Grant should suffer what might 
seem like an indignity. 

But at first the English were not inclined to make any dis- 
tinction in favor of General Grant. They said : " Americans 
give their ex-Presidents no rank, why should we ? " When 
Pierrepont pointed out that ex-Kings received peculiar honors, 
he was told that they were born in the purple ; the ex-King 
of Hanover was the Queen's own cousin. They forgot that 
the ex-Emperor of the French, the veriest of pretenders and 
interlopers, was treated as an equal by Queen Victoria after 
his downfall ; yet he had not even served out his term, but 
was deposed by the people who, he claimed, had elected him. 
It was besides incorrect to say that no provision is made in 
America for honoring ex-Presidents. The regulations of the 
Navy prescribe that the same salute shall be given to an 
ex-President as to a President, and although no rules for pre- 
cedence exist in the United States, except at Washington, 
there could be no occasion, public or private, when General 
Grant would not receive the first place, after the actual 
President. 

Mr. Pierrepont discussed these points with Lord Derby, 
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who finally agreed in behalf 
of the British Government that General Grant should be 
received as an ex-sovereign ; he was to make the first visit to 
the members of the royal family, but every other Englishman 
was to yield him precedence. There was, however, still a 
question of etiquette with the foreign representatives. The 



GRANT IN ENGLAND. 2 £r 

Government could give General Grant precedence over 
envoys, but the Ambassadors represented the persons of 
their sovereigns, and would not yield. "There would be a 

"'war," said the Foreign Minister. But even this difficulty was 
finally disposed of by diplomatic skill. Lord Derby was to 
give a dinner at the Foreign Office on the night after General 
Grant arrived in London. It was the Queen's birthday, when 
there is always a dinner to the foreign representatives. Now 
if General Grant went to this dinner the great question of 
precedence would at once arise ; so Lord Derby determined 
not to invite General Grant on this occasion, but to ask him 

^afterward and then leave out the Ambassadors. Mr. Pierre- 
pont was obliged to go to the dinner, for he was an envoy, 
and to stay away would be a slight to the Queen ; but the 
Duke of Wellington asked General Grant for the same night, 
and had no Ambassadors. 

All this was arranged before General Grant arrived in 
London, and without his knowledge. Had he been consulted 
he would probably have said that he wished no question 
** raised, but I am not sure that he was sorry afterward that the 
point was made. The precedent set in England was followed 
all over the world, and the success of his wonderful tour was 
certainly aided by the character of the reception he met from 
the important personages of England. The distinctive recog- 
nition of his consequence as ex-President was due to the 
efforts of Mr. Pierrepont. Without those efforts General 

~ Grant would doubtless have met with the same enthusiastic 
welcome from the English people, and from other peoples 
afterward, but he might not have received the distinguished 
treatment from sovereigns that made his journey around the 
world unprecedented in history. Some republicans have 
thought there was too much consequence given to etiquette 
at the time, but the incidents that happened to Fillmore and 

* Van Buren show what might have occurred to Grant ; and 
some of the good feeling which at present exists between 



266 GRANT IN PEACE. 

England and the United States might not have been aroused, 
had the representative American been slighted or officially „ 
ignored. The difficulty Mr. Pierrepont had in arranging the 
matter shows that such an event was not impossible. 

But the English Government was as good as its word. 
Grant had precedence of all Englishmen at every house in 
England but one, and that house was not the Queen's. Lord 
Beaconsfield, the Prime Minister, set the example. He invited 
Grant to dinner before the General had called on him, and 
attended the party made by the American Minister in Grant's 
honor. This party was also attended by the foreign Ambassa- 
dors, who conceded so much as this, but insisted that their 
presence should be considered a visit, which was to be 
punctiliously returned, and I went about with the poor Gen- 
eral half the next day leaving cards. 

When Mr. Pierrepont gave a dinner to the Prince of 
Wales for General Grant, the same question came up again ; I 
for as Pierrepont was a Minister he could not invite the 
Prince of Wales without asking the Ambassadors, while they, 
if they wanted to, could not stay away. The matter was 
duly considered by the Lord Chamberlain and the envoy and 
the Ambassadors, and I am not sure that the Prince himself 
was not consulted, for he is a great authority on etiquette. 
Finally it was agreed that for this occasion General Grant 
might precede the Ambassadors ; and as there were only two 
ladies present the Prince took in Mrs. Pierrepont and 
Mr. Pierrepont took Mrs. Grant. The Ambassadors fol- 
lowed, and there was no war. 

Mr. Pierrepont constantly gave up his place to General., 
Grant, for this was necessary according to court rules. No 
American can properly precede the American Minister at the 
court to which he is accredited. Mr. Lowell did the same 
thing in Spain, and General Read in Greece, and others 
whenever the occasion arose ; for Pierrepont's difficulties 
were presented to other Ministers. 



GRANT IN ENGLAND. 2 g- 

The first dinner General Grant attended in London was at 
Apsley House, the residence of the Duke of Wellington. The 
son of the great English soldier said that it was proper for him 
to welcome the first of American soldiers. He descended to 
the door to receive General Grant, according to the etiquette 
maintained with royal personages, and escorted him in the 

^same way on his departure ; but I can remember no other 
occasion when this ceremony was performed by Englishmen. 
At Lord Derby's dinner General Grant had precedence of 
the Prime Minister ; at Lord Houghton's he went in before 
several dukes ; and so on. The point was settled and no one 
questioned it afterward ; although in advance I more than 
once heard English men and women scout the idea that an 

•~~ex-President could precede a duke. Every one, of course, 
was polite. The General was incessantly invited by the 
highest nobility, and during the three weeks that he stayed 

I at my house three thousand cards were left for him. It 
came to such a pass that people could hardly afford not to 
call, lest it should be supposed they were not of sufficient 

j» consequence. I had a party myself for the General, and 
English people of rank who didn't know me went down on 
their knees to my friends, imploring invitations. This sounds 
preposterous ; nevertheless it is true. 

All this was very pleasant to those who were fond of the 
General, and agreeable to any Americans who regarded him 
as an especial representative; he did not himself pretend to 

~be indifferent; but the aristocratic courtesies were insignifi- 
cant compared with his reception by the common people of 
England. The high society has its sensation every season ; 
there is always a Czar, or a Shah, or some other potentate 
who is the lion of the hour ; and that year it was General 
Grant. For their own sakes the important people paid him 

^compliments; the Government for political reasons, the 
fashionable sort because they like to know and to say ths 
they know all the great ones of the earth ; they are not like 



2 68 GRANT IN PEACE. 

American exclusives, civil only to their own kind. A great 
democrat was to them even more of a curiosity than a king ; 
and their breeding compelled them to show such a stranger 
the courtesy it had been decided to accord. 

But the common people were not included in the diplo- 
matic arrangements, and they took the matter into their own 
hands, without consulting the Lord Chamberlain. To them 
the coming of an ex-President was an event. It was the 
realization of what they had heard of but never seen — that a 
plain man, without rank, or birth, or fortune, with only native 
ability and character to back him, could become one of the ^ 
potentates of the earth. He was the incarnation of Repub- 
licanism. He was Democracy itself in the house of Aristoc- 
racy. 

Besides this, many of the working people had sympathized 
with the Union in its struggle for existence. They knew that 
the high society was almost universally on the side of the ^ 
South, not because it loved the South any better than it 
did the North, nor in fact as well, but it wanted the Republic 
destroyed because the Republic was a reproach to aristocracy ; 
for the same reason the workingmen wanted the Republic 
saved. They knew that Grant had led the Union annies, and 
they greeted him as the champion of the cause in which 
they too were interested. All this is not the partial fancy of 
a friend, nor the rhapsody of a republican ; it was said again 
and again in my hearing, in public speech and private conver- 
sation, and repeated in scores of the provincial newspapers. 

General Grant was met when he touched English soil 
by the Mayor of Liverpool. Now a Mayor in England is not 
an aristocrat ; he is usually a tradesman, probably a success- m 
ful one, but still not of the upper class. The prosperous part 
of the population of Liverpool is not aristocratic ; it is con- 
nected with trade. But the ovation General Grant at once 
received in that city was prodigious. He was taken to the » 
Custom House, and ten thousand respectable citizens crowded I 



GRANT IN ENGLAND. 2 6q 

into the hall to give him the first promise of what was to 

follow all over the land. The next clay the scene was 

repeated ; and so it went on. At Manchester he was the 

Tguest of the city and lodged in the Town Hall, which had 

/ never been occupied by State guests before. Banquets and 

/ processions were made for him, orations delivered ; he was 

taken to the places of public interest — always by people of 

the great middle class. Not a lord appeared until he reached 

London. When he entered a theatre the orchestra played 

I "Hail Columbia," and the actors stopped the performance 
while the audience rose as they would for a sovereign. 

He had the same sort of reception in every one of the 
great towns of England. In each place he was the guest of 
the civic authorities, who, in every one of the large cities, are 
men of the middle class. In this way he saw more of that 

"* great class which constitutes so much of the strength, and 
owns so much of the wealth, and makes so much of the great- 
ness of England ; for lawyers, merchants, manufacturers, edi- 
tors, artists, literary men, — all that we are in the habit of 
regarding as constituting the best elements of society — in 
England belong to the middle class. The cities are filled 
with a mercantile or manufacturing population, and the aris- 
tocracy never live in any city except London. If a person 
resides in a city in England, you may almost know that he is 
not an aristocrat. 

But it was not only the leaders of the middle class, the 
wealthy merchants and great manufacturers, the liberal writ- 
ers and thinkers, who delighted to do General Grant honor, it 
was those who, in that country, are lower still in the social 
scale,— the working class. At places like Sheffield, and 

~ Sunderland, and Birmingham, and Manchester, and Newcas- 
tle, the popular demonstration equaled any in America imme- 
diately after the war. Towns were illuminated because of h 

Y presence, triumphal arches were erected in his honor, hoi 
were proclaimed when he arrived, hundreds ot thousands 



2J0 GRANT IN PEACE. 

turned out to meet him, the banks of the Tyne were covered 
with working people for twenty miles. The horses were 
taken from his carriage more than once, and the crowds gath- 
ered around to shake his hand, just as if he had led their 
armies or fought for their cause. They felt, indeed, that the' 
cause was the same, that he was a leader in the same battle 
in which they have still their fight to make. Then, too, here 
was a ruler of a great people, and they could shake his hand ! 
Here was a President who was not inaccessible. It was 
Democracy in the flesh. No wonder the poor who had lived 
under lords and sovereigns for centuries felt that, whereas 
they had been blind, now they saw. 

While General Grant stayed at my house, I remember two 
visits that were paid him, peculiar in character. One was 
from the Comte de Paris, who wrote to me in advance to 
ask when it would be agreeable to General Grant to receive 
him. The services of the Orleans Prince in our armies were, 
of course, known to General Grant, but the two had never 
met in America. Grant's star had not risen very high when 
the Comte de Paris was on McClellan's staff, and when Gen- 
eral Grant was brought East to command the armies, the 
descendant of St. Louis had returned to Europe. Of course, 
the visit was a compliment, and General Grant was gratified. 
He conversed pleasantly with the Prince and performed the 
proper etiquettes. 

But afterward, on the same day, he received a deputation 
of English workingmen, and, though he had all respect for 
the gallant gentleman who had offered his sword in our behalf, 
and perhaps a shade of personal pity for a discrowned Prince, 
his livelier interest was excited by the British mechanics and 
artisans who came to offer their less elegant greeting. There' 
were forty of them, each representing a different trade, and 
they presented a formal address, assuring him of their deep 
regard for the welfare and progress of America, where British 
workmen had always found a welcome. Grant's reply showed 



GRANT IN ENGLAND. 271 

that his republican sentiments had not been disturbed by the 
aristocratic grandeur and ceremony that had surrounded him 
in London. 

"Since my arrival on British soil," he said, "I have re- 
ceived great attentions, which were intended, I am sure, for 
my country. I have had orations, hand-shakings, and pre- 
sentations from different classes, from the Government, from 
the controlling authorities of cities, and have been received in 
the cities by the populace, but there has been no reception 
which I am prouder of than that of to-day." 

General Grant left England with a profounder impression 
of the people than of the statesmen or the aristocracy. And 
well might that be ; for many have been received as cordially 
as he by the upper classes ; but I doubt if any foreigner ever 
awoke such enthusiasm throughout the land among the com- 
mon English people as Grant. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 

GENERAL GRANT arrived in London at the time of 
the Epsom races, and the Prince of Wales at once 
offered him a car in his train for the " Oaks," the second of 
the great events of the week; the "Derby" had already 
been run. The invitation was accepted, and the General 
and the Minister and one or two others went down in the 
Prince's train. A special box had been provided, and after 
the General's arrival it was proposed that he should be pre- 
sented to the Prince of Wales. But the Prince said that 
General Grant was too distinguished a man to be received in 
this informal manner; he would prefer that the first visit 
should be paid at Marlborough House. Nevertheless, the 
Prince came with several of his suite into General Grant's 
box and made his acquaintance there. Thus the first visit 
was in reality paid by the Prince of Wales. 

This was on Friday, and on Saturday General Grant made 
his formal visit at Marlborough House, according to appoint- 
ment, and then wrote his name, as the etiquette is, in the 
books of the other members of the Royal Family. These* 
visits were not returned ; the Duke of Cambridge alone left 
his card. 

A few days afterward General Grant attended a levee 
held by the Prince of Wales, at which he was treated with 
no more ceremony than many others. He was presented 
by the American Minister, and afterward stood in the diplo- 
matic circle facing the Prince during the levee. This indi- 

(272) 



GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 

cated that he was not recognized as of rank approaching 
that of the Royal Family. He was a distinguished person- 
age, but far below those magnificent beings, the Guelphs 
and Mecklenburg-Strelitzes and Tecks and other connections 
and cousins of the Queen, who were all placed in the same 
line with the Prince of Wales, and General Grant had to 
make his bow to each of them in turn. He did not suffer 
acutely from the distinction thus marked out between him- 
self and royal clay; nevertheless this ceremony made it 
certain that the court ignored the arrangement that had 
been made by the Government. The Royal Family did not 
regard General Grant as an ex-sovereign, and refused to treat 
him as such ; he was nothing but an ex-President. 

It was amusing to observe the determination of the 
descendants of George I. and II. and III. to draw the line 
between themselves and democratic dignity. They did it as 
courteously and unoffensively as possible, but the line was 
there and never to be passed. Poor shows and shams! 
Their etiquette is all that is left them in these days; if 
they yield that where would they be in the presence of 
the really great of the earth, of men of achievement and 
reputation and power, who have conquered armies and 
governed states? 

This whole matter of the levee was doubtless considered 
in advance. The courtiers insisted that General Grant 
should go to court, where the distinction they desired to 
make would become apparent. His popularity by this time 
was conspicuous, and to have an ex-President going about 
and receiving the attention due to a sovereign or a semi- 
sovereign was undesirable, perhaps dangerous. It showed 
the world that there was nothing in royalty after all. If one 
Head of a State is as good as another, what becoirn 
birth and rank and kings and crowns and all the antiquated 
frippery ? Beef-eaters and gentlemen-at-arms would be i 
of business. So the Lord Chamberlain and the Prime Min- 
18 



274 GRANT IN PEACE. 

istcr assured the American envoy that it would be discourt- 
eous in General Grant not to attend the levee. There was 
no other way in which he could pay his respects to the 
Queen, who was at Balmoral, and Her Majesty had already, 
they said, invited General Grant to a ball without waiting for 
him to be presented. They did not remind the Minister that 
this courtesy is often shown to persons of distinction far 
below the royal grade. 

The courtiers were cunning and said nothing in advance 
about the place General Grant was to take at the levee, and 
the Republican envoy, unversed in such devices, doubtless 
supposed that his great countryman would be invited to a 
place at the Royal side. So General Grant put on his uni- 
form and stood like any lord or lordling in His Highness's 
presence till the levee was over. The Prince graciously 
gave his hand to the ex-President, as he did to dukes and 
ambassadors, and then the General fell back into the posi- 
tion assigned him. All of which is of no earthly con- 
sequence except to illustrate royal snobbishness and the 
insolence of courts. But if George Washington, Abraham 
Lincoln, and General Grant could all return to earth and 
attend a levee at the same time with the King of some 
cannibal island and his barbarous cousins, the royal savages 
would be ranged in a line with the Queen and the Prince of 
Wales, and the democrats would be expected to pass before 
them. 

The next occasion when royalty and democracy met was 
at the house of the Marquis of Hertford, the Lord High 
Chamberlain and the successor of Thackeray's Marquis of^ 
Steyne. His lordship was giving a dinner to the Princess 
Louise and the Marquis of Lome, and had asked a few 
friends to come in afterward and meet Her Royal Highness 
and her noble husband. General Grant was not invited 
to the dinner but was asked to the reception afterward. 
We arrived before dinner was over, and were not received. 



GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALLS. 

A royal guest could not be left by the Lord Chamberlain 
because an ex-President was in the drawing-room; so Gen- 
eral Grant waited till dinner was over, when Lord and Lady 
Hertford came out in attendance on Her Royal High] 
Then they welcomed their democratic guests and General 
Grant was presented to the Princess Louise. The Princess 
was gracious, and when Mrs. Grant expressed her regret at 
not having seen the Queen, she replied: "But you will be 
sure to see her. Her Majesty will come to Windsor before 
you leave." 

The next of these ceremonies that I remember was a 
court ball. General Grant, like every one else, was expected 
to be present when royalty arrived. No place was assi 
him, but he was allowed to find room with the diplomatic 
corps. He stood with Mr. Pierrepont below the Ambassadors, 
who were on the steps of a dais nearer the Royal Family. 
When the Prince entered he offered his hand to General 
Grant as he passed, which was a great distinction, conf< 
.only on two or three. Later the General was invited to take 
part in one of the royal quadrilles, but declined the honor, 
which was not extended to Mrs. Grant. No other notice 
was taken of him by host or hostess, and after an hour or 
.two the General became tired and left before supper. What 
arrangement would have been made had he remained was 
not indicated, but probably none until royalty had been 
served. 

A week or two afterward General and Mrs. Grant had 
the honor of being invited to dine with the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, "to meet their Imperial Majesties, the 
Emperor and Empress of Brazil." I accompanied them on 
this occasion. The Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were also 
present. 

When General and Mrs. Grant arrived they passed f 
into a large ante-chamber in which the Prince of Wa 
happened to be playing with his two boys. The other guests 



2^6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

had not arrived, and the Prince may not have expected to be 
in this hall when General Grant came in ; or he may possibly 
have planned the accidental reception. He came forward at 
once, like any other gentleman in his own house, and gave 
his hand to General Grant, who presented Mrs. Grant, and t 
mentioned my name, which the Prince had known before. 
Then the Prince called up his sons, lads then of ten or 
twelve, and said he wished them to know General Grant. 
He was extremely genial and affable. After this he disap- 
peared through a side door, and an equerry ushered the party 
into a long waiting-room, where we remained nearly half an 
hour. - 

The dinner party was large ; I should think there were 
thirty people present, including several dukes and duchesses, 
and other of the nobility; the Brazilian Minister and his 
wife had been asked out of compliment to the Emperor, for 
whom the dinner was given. After a while a gentleman-in- 
waiting appeared and said the Princess desired the ladies to 
range themselves on one side of the room and the gentlemen 
on the other ; so General and Mrs. Grant took their places 
four or five from the head of the line. After apparently ten 
minutes' further waiting in this position, all standing, for no 
one had been seated or had been asked to sit since we entered, 
the great do< rs at the top cf the line on the right were 
thrown open and the Empress of Brazil came in on the arm 
of the Prince of Wales. Next came the Princess with the 
Emperor. They passed directly between the two lines to the 
dining-room, which was opposite the apartment from which 
the)- had entered ; the Empress of Brazil however, had known 
Mrs. Grant in America, when the ladies had each been the 
wife of a great ruler, and she stopped short when she came 
to Mrs. Grant and greeted her, but the other royal and 
imperial personages, including the hostess, passed in without 
recognizing anybody. Then a number of dukes and lesser 
nobles were told off to their partners and followed the 



GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. o-- 

-/ / 

Empress and the Prince. After every noble person present 
was thus assigned General Grant was requested to go in with 
Mrs. Pierrepont, and Mrs. Grant with the Brazilian Minister, 
whom the Emperor of Brazil looked upon as his servant. 

The British Government had agreed with Mr. Pierrepont 
that the ex-President of the United States should have 
precedence of dukes, but the Prince of Wales deliberately 
put him as near as possible to the foot of the table. There 
"was no English person of noble rank who followed General 
Grant. He sat within three or four of the Comptroller of the 
Household, who was at the extreme foot; the Prince and 
Princess were at the middle with the Emperor and Empress. 
The Duke of Cambridge, the Duke and Duchess of Man- 
chester, the Earl and Countess of Derby, the Earl of Dudley, 
were all placed higher than General Grant. When the ladies 
left the table every one rose, of course, and the Empress and 
Princess passed out, while Mrs. Grant was left to find her 
way like any other person of insignificance. Then the Prince 
of Wales changed his own seat, according to the English 
custom, and took that by the side of the Emperor, which the 
Princess had vacated. In a moment or two he sent an 
equerry or a footman, I forget which, to ask General Grant to 
sit by the other side of him in his new place, and General 
Grant left his seat and walked around the table and accepted 
this high honor, just as any other private gentleman might 
have done. The Prince then was very gracious in his talk 
and manner. 

After a while the gentlemen rejoined the ladies in the 
order in which they had come in, the dukes and earls taking 
care to assert their rights of precedence. In one of the 
drawing-rooms there was music; here the Princess and the 
Empress sat apart and listened or talked, and the Emper 
remained near them. Neither General nor Mrs Grant was 
invited to join this select company. The Prince came out 
it once or twice and talked with some of his guests, among 



2 yS GRANT IN PEACE. 

others with General Grant; but he said no word to Mrs. 
Grant, and neither the General nor Mrs. Grant was presented 
to the princely hostess. The Prince presented General 
Grant to the Earl of Dudley, one of the worst-bred men in 
any company in any country; and his lordship was worthy of 
his reputation on this occasion, for he almost turned on his 
heel. He put his hands behind him and simply acknowledged 
his Prince's introduction with a slight bow, almost a nod, said 
not one word, and left the group. It was by far the most 
marked impertinence General Grant had received in sixteen 
years. 

When the Empress had heard enough of the music, she 
and the Princess arose and bowed to the company. Every- 
body else made profound salaams, and the whole imperial and 
royal party disappeared and did not return. Mrs. Grant now 
desired also to leave, but the ladies-in-waiting assured her 
that the Princess would return. They appeared to appreciate 
the behavior of their mistress, and thought it could not possi- 
bly be carried further. Mrs. Grant, therefore, delayed four 
or five minutes longer. Then finding that her hosts had no 
idea of continuing their hospitality, she took General Grant's 
arm and retired. I followed them. After we had reached 
the ante-room and were moving toward the cloaking-rooms, 
one of the courtiers came up and said that the Princess desired 
to bid Mrs. Grant good-night. Accordingly we delayed in 
the ante-room till the Prince and Princess came out. The 
royal hosts smiled graciously, bowed and courtesied grace- 
fully, and wished their democratic guests good-night, and that 
was the end of General Grant's dinner with the Prince of 

Wales. 

General Grant, of course, perceived the intention of all 
this etiquette, but was determined not to resent or admit the 
slight. He was receiving great hospitality and kindness from 
the English nation; he had been cordially treated by the 
Government and the high aristocracy, who could not control 



GRANT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES. 279 

the court, and he desired us all to say nothing on the subject 
of the conduct of the Prince and Princess of Wales. His 
•course reminded me of Froissart's story of the great Norman 
nobles whose breeding was so famous that a certain prince 
determined to test it. He asked a large party to a banquet, 
and took care that the tables should be filled before the 
Normans arrived. They, however, made no remark, but 
folded their cloaks and sat on these on the floor, where they 
were served. After the repast they paid their parting com- 
pliments and went away, leaving their cloaks behind them. 
Their host, however, sent the garments to them on the road, 
but the Normans replied that they were not in the habit of 
carrying about with them the seats that they used at enter- 
tainments. It seemed to me that General Grant's silence was 
as fine as the answer of the Normans He rather pitied the 
Heir Apparent, whose notions of hospitality were so pro- 
vincial. Indeed, he looked on the whole proceeding as 
he would on the antics of some half-civilized Asiatic, who 
announces that the Khan of Tartary has dined, and now 
the kings of the earth are at liberty to satisfy themselves. 

The Prince probably did not desire to be rude. At this 
very dinner he requested the General to keep a night for a 
public banquet at which he wished him to be present, and so 
far as mere manner was concerned, he had been perfectly 
affable and genial. It was the point of etiquette he was 
determined to maintain. General Grant was not royal, and 
the Prince was determined not to treat him as if he were. 

In accordance with the wish of the General none of his 
party mentioned the circumstances I have described. Prob- 
• ably some of the English present were not so reticent, for 
the story got about, and there were comments on it in the 
American newspapers. Upon this the Prince wrote to the 
Minister and expressed his concern. He said he could not 
have given precedence to General Grant over the Emperor, 
and tried to explain. But there was no necessity to invite 



2 80 GRANT IN PEACE. 

General Grant at the same time with the Emperor. There 
was in fact no necessity to invite him at all if he could not 
receive in the house of the Heir to the Throne the same dis- 
tinction that was offered him in every other house in England, 
and which the Prince of Wales must have known that the 
English Government had promised to accord. One can 
understand that a prince might feel that he must maintain 
the principle which underlies his princehood ; but the Prince 
of Wales put General Grant below everybody at his table of 
even the rank of an earl ; and there is no rule recognized in 
any etiquette, royal or democratic, which forbids a hostess to 
speak to her guests. 

In less than a month after this dinner General Grant was 
invited by the King of the Belgians, who took Mrs. Grant to 
table, while the General was requested to give his arm to the 
Queen. The etiquette of the Prince of Wales was all his 
own. It was not even that of his own sovereign. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



GRANT AT WINDSOR. 






THE Queen was at Balmoral when General Grant arrived 
in London, but soon after Her Majesty's return to 
Windsor a card was sent to General and Mrs. Grant with 
these words, partly written and partly engraved : 

" The Lord Steward 

has received Her Majesty's commands to invite 

General and Mrs. Grant 

to dinner at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, 26th June, and to remain 

until the following day. 

Windsor Castle 

25th June, 1877. 

See other side." 
On the other side was engraved : 

" Buckingham Palace, 

_ 1877." 
" Should the ladies or gentlemen to whom invitations are sent 
be out of town, and not expected to return in time to obey the 
Queen's commands on the day the invitations are for, the cards are 
to be brought back." 

This is not exactly the form in which ex-sovereigns are 
invited to Windsor, but it is the fashion in which Her 
Majesty commands the presence of her own subjects. The 
' American Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were summoned in 
precisely the same way, and a similar card was sent to me. 
The invitations were accepted according to the ordinary 
etiquette : " General and Mrs. Grant had the honor to accept 

(281) 



2 82 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Her Majesty's most gracious invitation, etc." The General's 
youngest son, Jesse, a youth of nineteen, was traveling with 
his father at this time, and Mrs. Grant naturally desired that 
he should receive all the attention which the circumstances 
would allow. Jesse himself did not share this feeling. He 
was not anxious for royal or aristocratic invitations, and when 
it was explained to him that so extraordinary an opportunity 
of meeting distinguished people could hardly happen to a 
young man again, he replied that the honor was meant for 
his father, not for him, and that if he should return to England 
alone, none of these important personages would remember 
him or invite him. He did not value compliments paid to 
himself on account of his father. 

Notwithstanding this I was desired to send a message to 
Sir John Cowell, the Master of the Queen's Household, with 
whom I had been personally acquainted for several years. I 
telegraphed to him in these words : " Personal and confiden- 
tial to yourself. I would not, of course, make such a sugges- 
tion unauthorized, but if it could be proposed to invite 
General Grant's son, Mr. Jesse Grant, a young man of nine- 
teen or twenty, it would be a great gratification to General 
and Mrs. Grant. If this is contrary to etiquette, please con- 
sider this telegram not sent." 

A card like that addressed to General Grant was immedi- 
ately forwarded to Jesse, and on the afternoon appointed we 
set out by train for Windsor. The party included General 
and Mrs. Grant, the Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont, Jesse and 
myself, with four or five servants. The Queen's carriages 
were in waiting at the station, and the Master of the House- 
hold received us at the Castle. The Queen was out driving 
and would not be visible until dinner, so that all the nonsense 
that was published about Her Majesty welcoming General 
Grant at the foot of the grand staircase, as she would have 
done the Shah of Persia, or any other black or white monarch 
who visited her, was without foundation. Such potentates 



GRANT AT WINDSOR. 283 

are allowed to greet their sister sovereign with a royal kiss, 
but the Queen was not in the house when the ex-President 
arrived. Undoubtedly Her Majesty's absence was planned. 
• The General was shown to his rooms, which were the 
same, we were told, that had been occupied by the Czar as 
well as by the Duke of Edinburgh, immediately after his mar- 
riage. Jesse and I had apartments by ourselves, where Sir 
John Cowell at once visited me and said with a little embar- 
rassment that Mr. Jesse and I were to dine with the House- 
hold and not at Her Majesty's table; but that immediately 
after dinner we should be taken in and presented to the 
Queen. The royal Household is always served in a separate 
room and usually only one or two of the ladies and gentlemen- 
in-waiting are invited to join Her Majesty's party. Foreign 
Ministers, the members of the Government, even the Prime 
Minister, when he is in attendance, all dine with the House- 
hold, unless specially invited by Her Majesty. Jesse and I, 
however, had been specially invited by the Queen, and the 
invitation was now modified, if not withdrawn. 

As soon as Sir John had left the room Jesse declared that 
he would not dine with the Household. He had been invited 
by the Queen and if he could not sit at her table he would 
return to town. We descended to General Grant's apart- 
ments and found the Duchess of Roxburgh, one of the ladies- 
in-waiting, paying a visit to Mrs. Grant. The Duchess was 
explaining the arrangements for dinner, and stated that the 
Queen was unable to receive large parties at table, as the 
number produced giddiness. This explanation was evidently 
considered necessary, although it was not offered as an 
excuse. The Duchess also took pains to say that the ladies 
and gentlemen-in-waiting were all persons of distinction, and 
then withdrew. The Minister and Mrs. Pierrepont were now 
present, and Jesse at once repeated that he preferred to 
return to town rather than dine with the servants. After 
this a long discussion took place, during which some of the 



284 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



real servants were in the room ; these doubtless heard and 
repeated the wonderful remarks of the democratic youth, for 
shortly afterward another of Her Majesty's ladies-in-waiting 
was announced. This was the Marchioness of Ely, who came 
on the same errand as her predecessor, ostensibly to pay her 
respects to Mrs. Grant, but in reality to explain that she her- 
self was to be of the party with which Jesse was to dine, and 
to repeat the story of the Queen's dizziness and inability to 
receive a large company at table. Of course all this was 
only gracefully and casually introduced, but when the inform- 
ation was communicated the courtier retired. 

Then the democrats resumed their discussion. Jesse 
insisted on going home at once ; he said he had not cared 
to come to Windsor at all, which was true, and that he 
certainly would not dine with any one but his hostess. 
The General was, of course, unwilling for the lad to leave, 
but he thought that his son should dine at the same table 
with himself. The Queen, however, had not yet returned, 
and none of the courtiers could decide the question. Finally 
General Grant desired me to see the Master of the House- 
hold, and to say that he had of course no wish to suggest any 
change in the arrangements, or to ask any innovation in 
etiquette ; but that the invitation had been misunderstood ; 
he had supposed that his son was to dine at the same table 
with himself, and since this was not to be, he requested 
that the invitation to Jesse should be withdrawn, so that 
he might return to town. Sir John was extremely well- 
bred and simply said that he would convey the message 
to Her Majesty immediately upon her arrival from her drive. 
I asked if he wished to see General Grant, but he replied that 
he would not trouble the General. 

Then we waited for an answer. I suppose such a message 
had never been sent to Her Majesty before since her 
coronation. If the Queen had been ill-tempered or lacking in 
taste or tact there might have been an unpleasant compli- 



GRANT AT WINDSOR. 2 8? 

cation. It was possible that the entire invitation might be 
withdrawn, or a message might be sent that would make 
it impossible for General Grant to remain, and thus necessi- 
tate the return of the whole party to London. Even interna- 
tional feeling might be aroused. But General Grant had 
been assured that he should be treated as an ex-sovereign, and 
it seemed to him, with h*s democratic notions, that he 
was not treated as a private gentleman. Certainly no private 
gentleman bidden with his son to the White House would 
have expected that son to dine at a different table and in 
a different room from himself. 

As for me, I was acting as General Grant's aide-de-camp, 
and could not complain because I was to dine with the aides- 
de-camp of Her Majesty. Still I felt that I had been invited 
by a lady and on arriving at her house was requested to sit at 
a different table from that to which I had been asked. This 
might be royal etiquette, but it was not good breeding, and it 
never happened to me at another court. However, I was 
determined that no question affecting me should complicate 
the affair or interfere with General Grant's success. Besides 
this, I was a public officer, accredited to the Queen, and 
bound perhaps to accept her decisions in the etiquette of her 
own palace. So no question whatever was made about me. 

Finally we all dressed for dinner to be ready for whatever 
might happen, and before I returned to General Grant's 
drawing-room the Master of the Household came to me. He 
had delivered the General's message, and Her Majesty 
commanded him to say that she would be happy to have Mr. 
Jesse dine at her table. So the difficulty was obviated by the 
good sense and good breeding of the Queen. 

The party that dined with Her Majesty were all assembled 
before she entered the room. After speaking with each 
guest separately the Queen took the arm of her son, Prince 
Leopold, afterward Duke of Albany, and General Grant 
was asked to give his arm to the Princess Christian. The 



286 GRANT IN PEACE. 

General and the Princess followed the Queen, and the Prince 
Christian with the Princess Beatrice went next. Thus 
General Grant preceded the Queen's own daughter and her 
son-in-law ; which was a distinct concession to him of rank 
equal to royalty, and as different as possible from the etiquette 
observed by the Prince of Wales. Mrs. Grant, however, did 
not receive the same recognition ; two duchesses preceded 
her and she went in with a lord-in-waiting. Jesse was placed 
nearly at the tail. The idea seemed to be to give General 
Grant a place that should indicate extraordinary deference 
according to royal rules, but not to recognize his democratic 
family further than courtesy required. The Queen, however, 
was gracious to all, and the dinner passed pleasantly enough. 
At table General Grant was not placed next Her Majesty. 
She had Prince Leopold on one side of her and Prince 
Christian on the other ; then the two Princesses. General 
Grant was next to the Princess Christian, which brought him 
below all the royal family and two places from the Queen. 
His conversation with Her Majesty was therefore not 
animated. 

I went to dinner with the Household in another room. I 
remember that Sir John Cowell, Lady Ely, Lady Susan 
Melville, and others of the Queen's ladies and gentlemen 
were present. My companions were extremely affable, and I 
thought they seemed to wish to make up for my disappoint- 
ment, so far as they could. Almost immediately after we 
rose Sir John disappeared, but came back at once and 
announced that I was to be taken in and presented to the 
Queen. I had gone through the forms of presentation at 
levees and drawing-rooms, but had never exchanged a word 
with Her Majesty. 

She was standing with her dinner company at one end of 
a long gallery when I was led up to her. She bowed with 
extreme graciousness, and said immediately that she had to 
thank me for a book I had once sent her. This was the first 



GRANT AT WINDSOR. 



287 



volume of my " History of General Grant," which Dean and 
Lady Augusta Stanley had presented to the Queen for me 
seven years before. It had been acknowledged at the time 
by a courteous note, but with the royal faculty the circum- 
stance was recalled and the acknowledgment repeated now. 
Of course I was impressed by the courtesy, and thanked Her 
Majesty for recollecting my present after so many years. 
The Queen then went on to ask me how General Grant was 
enjoying his visit to England. This gave me an opportunity 
to speak of his reception throughout the country, which I 
was courtier enough to say "culminates to-night." At this 
the Majesty of England positively dropped me a courtesy 
and was evidently gratified ; so that we were equal on one 
point at least. I think she felt sorry that she had left me 
out and wanted to atone ; at any rate she made me feel very 
pleasant for a moment or two in spite of my disappointment. 

General Grant had received, since his arrival at Windsor, 
a telegram from the Grand Army of the Republic, which was 
holding its annual re-union on that day, and had sent its con- 
gratulations to its ancient chief. I took the opportunity to 
speak of this as indicating the satisfaction which a million of 
Americans felt at the compliment the Queen was paying to 
their representative; and the royal features beamed again. 
There is indeed a charm of expression, a winning smile that 
comes over Her Majesty's countenance, a grace of demeanor 
when she means to be gracious, which is more than ordinary. 
It was not because she was a queen, for I have been well- 
received by other queens ; and at this moment, as may be 
supposed, I was not altogether in the mood to admire ; but 
the plain little woman conquered me with a sweetness of 
look and smile which I had heard of before but had never 
seen at court. It is of no imaginable consequence, but I for- 
gave her my dinner. 

She remained in the room only a few moments longer. I 
remember that she talked with Mrs. Grant, who told me 



2 g3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

afterward of a good thing she said to Her Majesty. Con- 
sidering the etiquette of the dining-room, it seemed to me 
a perfectly fair reminder between the two women. The 
Queen said something about her own labors or duties, and 
Mrs. Grant replied: "Yes, I can imagine them : I too have 
been the wife of a great ruler." Mrs. Grant was not to be 
put down, and I was glad she said it. 

As for Jesse, he did not say to his father, as the news- 
papers declared, "Pa, introduce her," but behaved with pro- 
priety and like a young gentleman. He had held out for his 
point of etiquette, as well as the royalties, and had won. He 
could afford to be polite. 

After a while, the Queen looked around, and two duch- 
esses approached and laid a lace shawl about her shoulders. 
Her Majesty courtesied, every one else bowed or courtesied 
very low, two great doors behind her were opened, and the 
Queen of England and the Princesses vanished, backward. 
The remainder of the party were now scattered in two or 
three of the drawing-rooms. There was music in the dis- 
tance, according to a printed programme. Some of the com- 
pany, General Grant among them, played at cards, others 
talked, and at eleven the ladies retired. Prince Leopold 
then invited General Grant to the billiard-room, which seemed 
to be beneath the castle, we descended so far. This is the 
only place where the Queen allows smoking. I accompanied 
the General, and Prince Leopold came down in a smoking 
suit of gorgeous purple and yellow satin, and played a game 
with the conqueror of Vicksburg. They are both in Hades 
now. General Grant sat up late, as usual, and it was two 
o'clock before I got to bed. But I had often sat up with 
him later still in camp. 

Next morning the Queen sent her album for the auto- 
graphs of the whole party (Jesse's included), and two of her 
ladies were directed to show us the most famous pictures 
and the great porcelain. Afterward Her Majesty's carriages 
and equerries were at General Grant's service. We drove 



GRANT AT WINDSOR. . 2 3g 

about in the Home Park, visited the mausoleum of the Prince 
Consort, but saw nothing more of the Queen or the Royal 
Family. By two o'clock we were back in town. 

The intention certainly had been to pay a great compli- 
ment to the ex-President of the United States, and I make 
no doubt that the Queen stretched her conscience or her eti- 
quette when she gave him her daughter to take in to dinner, 
and put him before the nobility. The episode of the invita- 
tions I account for by supposing that at first she intended to 
have me at her table. She was good-natured, and when the 
invitation for Jesse was asked, acquiesced, but doubtless then 
said, " Let them both dine with the Household." Then, when 
the question of the table was raised, she admitted Jesse ; so 
that, from her own point of view, she was extremely gracious 
throughout; and from anybody's point (but mine) she was 
amiable. I suffered for others, which is, of course, very 
much to my credit. But I certainly think the Queen should 
have left out some of her own courtiers on an international 
occasion, rather than a foreign gentleman whom she had 
thought it became her dignity to invite to her table. 

The Queen of England never saw General Grant again. 
When he was dying she was on the Continent, and from Aix- 
les-Bains she sent a telegram by Lady Ely to Mrs. Grant, 
expressing her sympathy and making friendly inquiries. 
Upon General Grant's death, she directed her Minister in the 
United States to present her condolences, while the Prince 
and Princess of Wales made known to the American Minis- 
ter in London their regret, and the "advantage" they should 
always consider it had been to them "to have made his 
acquaintance." The Prince had called on General Grant in 
Paris after the English experience. Indeed, there was a sort 
of sympathy between them on certain points ; for the Prince 
of Wales, when he chooses, can be cordial and as unaffected 
as General Grant himself was ; and, like all people used to 
the flatteries and diplomatic arts of courts and fashion, he 
appreciates directness and the beauty of simplicity. 
19 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 

THE first country that General Grant visited after leav- 
ing England was Belgium. Here he was received as 
an equal by the sovereign. At Ostend messages met him 
from the King inquiring when he would arrive at Brussels, 
and the royal railway carriage was placed at his disposal to 
convey him to the capital. In that city the members of the 
Government immediately paid their respects, and the royal 
equerries brought invitations for the General and his entire 
party to a dinner at the palace. The King's carriages were 
offered to the ex-President, and an aide-de-camp was ordered 
to report to him during his stay. General Grant, however, 
availed himself of this courtesy only when he paid official 
visits. In calling on the members of the Government and 
the foreign ministers, he went in the royal carriages, attended 
by the King's officer, and also in his visit to the palace, but 
at no other time. 

The invitations to the dinner were in French, and, trans- 
lated, they read as follows : 

" By order of Their Majesties, 

The Grand Marshal of the Court has the honor to invite 

Their Excellencies, General and Mrs. Grant, 

to dinner at the palace of Brussels, Sunday, 8th July. 1S77. at 6£ 

o'clock. 

Frock dress." 

The words "frock dress" {en frac) signified that court 
costume was not required. The notification was written, not 

(290) 



PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 29 1 

engraved, on the card, and was doubtless intended to make 
the etiquette as little onerous as possible for the democratic 
ex-President. Invitations were also sent, not only to the 
American Minister and his family, but to Mr. Sanford, the 
former Minister and his wife, and to all the American 
officials in Brussels, down to the vice-consul, who was an 
Englishman, and never went to court at home. 

On the day of the dinner the King himself called on 
General Grant at his hotel. The visit had not been pre- 
announced and there was not time after the carriages drew 
up for the General to descend the staircase to welcome 
His Majesty, but in every other way the King was received 
with the usual honors. 

He was attended by several gentlemen of his court, who 
remained standing during the interview, and when they were 
presented to General Grant they made him the same obei- 
sance which they were accustomed to offer to their sover- 
eign. The visit was short, as such ceremonies usually are 
among persons of exalted rank. Mrs. Grant was present 
and the King conversed with her as well as with the General. 
His Majesty speaks very good English, so that there was no 
difficulty about the language. 

Perhaps just here I may repeat a story that James Russell 
Lowell once told me about Mrs. Grant. When General Grant 
was at Madrid Mr. Lowell was Minister to Spain and made a 
dinner for the ex-President. Mrs. Grant was placed between 
two personages who like herself spoke only their own lan- 
guage, but Lowell described her ease and self-possession as 
quite inimitable. She appeared to converse continually, was 
bowing and smiling all the evening, and was apparently as 
much interested in her companions as any one at table — a 
bit of fine breeding worthy of a Queen, — or of the wife of 
an ex-President. 

But to return to Belgium. The King's visit was made 
on the day of the dinner, and as such civilities are to be 



2 Q2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

returned immediately General Grant inquired when he and 
Mrs. Grant could pay their compliments to the Queen. His 
Majesty knew that General Grant was to leave Brussels the 
next day, and accordingly proposed that the ex-President and 
Mrs. Grant should come to the palace a few moments before 
the hour for dinner, when the Queen would be ready to 
receive the formal visit. 

In the evening the royal carriages were sent for the party, 
which consisted of the General and Mrs. Grant, Jesse Grant, 
and myself. On arriving at the palace we were shown 
through what seemed an interminable suite of lofty rooms 
and finally entered one where several of the ladies and gen- 
tlemen of the court were already present ; the other guests 
of the evening had not arrived. It was July, and the win- 
dows overlooking the park were all open ; the sun had not 
yet set, and, of course, the candles were not lighted; the 
effect of the great rooms in the warm afternoon, with only 
a few people in evening dress and half costume, scattered 
here and there, was peculiar. The men were either in 
military uniform or frock dress, that is, dress coats, knee- 
breeches, black stockings, and low shoes, with buckles, 
chapeaux, and swords. Full dress would have required 
white stockings, gold lace, and embroidery, and other par- 
aphernalia. General Grant and all the American gentle- 
men wore plain evening clothes. 

We remained in this apartment while the company was 
assembling. No one seemed authorized to receive formally 
for their Majesties, though the guests greeted each other as 
they arrived. Everyone remained standing; indeed, I can- 
not remember that there were any scats in the room. After 
a few moments the King entered to conduct General and 
Mrs. Grant to pay their visit to the Queen. He gave his 
arm to Mrs. Grant, the General followed, and they disap- 
peared, but soon returned, the King now coming only to the 
door, which was immediately closed upon him. 



PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 2 Q% 

Shortly afterward the company were requested to take 
positions to await the entrance of their Majesties. General 
and Mrs. Grant stood next the doors by which they had 
come in from the Queen. These doors were now again 
thrown open, and a courtier announced in a loud voice : Le 
Roi et la Reine — ("The King and the Queen"). Their 
Majesties entered bowing, every one else, of course, making 
obeisance. The King was in uniform ; the Queen, except 
for her jewels, was no better dressed than Mrs. Grant. The 
royal pair spoke first to General and Mrs. Grant, as if wel- 
coming them for the first time, the previous visit being con- 
sidered a separate occasion from the dinner. Then their 
Majesties passed around the circle and each in turn addressed 
every one of the guests, talking a few moments with each, 
although the party was large. There were about thirty 
people present, members of the Government and other high 
functionaries, besides the Americans. 

After every guest had received some courtesy from the 
sovereigns the King approached Mrs. Grant and offered her 
his arm, and then requested General Grant to take the Queen 
to dinner. The King and Mrs. Grant preceded the General 
and the Queen ; then the other guests followed in the order 
assigned them. I had the honor of going in with the wife 
of the Minister for War, I suppose out of compliment to my 
military title. A curious little question of etiquette arose 
among the American ladies. The American Minister was 
ill and his wife was not living, but his daughters were invited 
to the dinner. Now, according to the etiquette of courts the 
daughters of diplomatic personages cannot enjoy the rank of 
wives, and Mrs. Sanford, the wife of the former Minister, 
was, therefore, placed above the daughters of the actual 
envoy. The Queen spoke of this to Mrs. Grant. • She said 
she was fond of the young ladies, but the rule was rigorous. 
I believe there were some heartburnings ; but Mrs. Sanford 
is known as one of the most famous beauties of her time. ■ 



~ , GRANT IN PEACE. 

^v4 * 

She was then at the very zenith of her charms, and no 

American could be unwilling to accept such a representative. 

I had myself not very long before been appointed Minister 

to this very Court, and had even visited Brussels with my 

credentials, prepared, if I chose, to present my letter to the 

King ; so that I looked upon these ceremonies with a more 

curious eye than if I had been an ordinary stranger, and 

thought of the different part I might have borne on this 

occasion. But I had preferred a lesser rank at a more 

important place, and remained as Consul-General at London 

rather than take the post of Minister to Brussels. I went 

in to dinner lower down in the line, but I lived at the core 

of the world instead of on the outside; for Brussels and 

Belgium exist only by permission of the greater Towers. 

This sufferance, however, according to European theory, 

detracts in no degree from the ceremonial importance of 

the sovereign. In fact, at many of the smaller courts the 

etiquette is more exact than that which surrounds imperial 

potentates. At Brussels there seemed a happy mingling of 

that regard for forms which in the Old World is still con- 

sidered essential, with a courtesy which it cannot be said 

that every palace breeds. 

There was music during dinner, far enough off not to 
interrupt conversation, and as the twilight faded, the great 
chandelier, with its hundreds of candles, that hung over the 
table, was lighted by a peculiar contrivance. A sort of 
thread of slow match connected the candelabra, and the fire 
was seen to travel from one to another till all were illumin- 
ated. When the dinner was over the whole party arose 
according to Continental fashion: the King took out Mrs. 
Grant, and General Grant the Queen; the others followed 
with their dinner partners, and the separation that is com- 
mon in England, and often here, did not occur. The men all 
accompanied the ladies to the drawing-rooms and remained 
there. 



PALACE AND PRESIDENT. 2 OC 

Again neither the royal hosts nor their guests were 
seated. The company stood in a circle, and the King and 
Queen passed around within it, as before. The conversation 
now was more prolonged and animated, but still there was a 
certain formality. The courtiers did not move about freely 
in the presence of the sovereigns. All the guests were pre- 
sented to both General and Mrs. Grant. About half an hour 
after dinner the King and the Queen retired, taking especial 
leave of the ex-President and his party, whom they were not 
to meet again. 

General Grant left immediately afterward. He was 
accompanied to his hotel by a royal equerry, and went, 
as before, in a royal carriage. The careful courtesy that 
marked every circumstance of the evening was in striking 
contrast with the offensive etiquette of Marlborough House, 
or even with the strained ceremonial of Windsor. The King 
of the Belgians is a Bourbon, just as blue in blood as a 
Guelph, and, according to all the rules of precedence, just 
as much of a sovereign as any name<3> in the Almanach de 
Gotha; but he did not fear to lessen his dignity or disturb 
his throne by treating an ex-President of the United States 
with the same courtesy he would have offered to Isabella of 
Spain or Bomba of Naples. 

The next Head of a State by whom General Grant was 
entertained was the President of the Swiss Republic, and, 
although the courtesy could be no more marked than that 
displayed by the King of the Belgians, I was struck not unfa- 
vorably with the democratic simplicity coming so soon after 
regal parade. A fortnight after the dinner in Brussels Gen- 
eral Grant arrived in Berne. It was understood that the 
President preferred to receive the first visit, and I therefore 
promptly ascertained when the republican magistrate would 
be at home to his democratic compeer. The visit was no 
more formal than many that had been paid to General Grant 
in Washington, and, indeed, hardly differed from the ordinary 



296 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



reception of one private gentleman by another. The Presi- 
dent referred to the sittings of the Council of Arbitration at 
Geneva, of which a Swiss statesman had been a member. 
He declared that Switzerland was honored by the selection 
of Mr. Staempfli, and he complimented General Grant upon 
the adoption of the principle of arbitration during his Presi- 
dency. Then the representatives of the smallest and the 
greatest of republics exchanged salutations, and General 
Grant withdrew. The visit was returned within half an hour. 
The same night the President gave a dinner to a few gen- 
tlemen in General Grant's honor. As he was unmarried, 
the invitation was not extended to Mrs. Grant. The com- 
pany included Mr. Staempfli, the Swiss arbitrator, and sev- 
eral members of the Government. The etiquette was ex- 
tremely simple, like the service ; indeed, neither differed 
from those at the houses of private gentlemen in America, 
unless in their greater simplicity. But the taste that reigned 
was absolute ; the conversation was animated and intensely 
interesting, and the dinner was equal in all essentials of 
courtesy and refinement to any ever given to General Grant. 
It confirmed me in my democratic preference for the reality 
of hospitable but unassuming elegance to all the forms and 
spirit of that ceremony which so often tramples upon cour- 
tesy. For courtly paraphernalia and parade, I have discov- 
ered, may be the symbols of an insolence just as vulgar when 
it is royal as if republican. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 

GRANT was undoubtedly the greatest traveler that ever 
lived. Not of course, the greatest discoverer or ex- 
plorer, though he was admitted to probably more secret and 
exclusive recesses and haunts than any other one man ; but 
he also visited more countries and saw more people, from 
Kings down to lackeys and slaves, than anybody who ever 
journeyed on this earth before. Others, of course, have 
made the tour around the globe; the Prince of Wales did 
something of that sort ; but he went not so far and saw only 
the upper strata of society ; others have had triumphal pro- 
cessions; some have ascended higher mountains or pene- 
trated nearer to Ethiopia ; but no other man was ever received 
by both peoples and sovereigns, by savans and merchants, by 
Presidents and Governor-Generals, by Tycoons and Sultans 
and Khedives, and school children and work-people and 
statesmen, like Grant. 

For him the Pyramids had a special door, and Memphis and 
Thebes were thrown open as to a successor of the Pharaohs; 
for him the Pope dispensed with the usual etiquette and 
welcomed a Protestant and a democrat who did not kneel. 
With him the King of Siam contracted a personal friendship 
and kept up a correspondence afterward ; while the Emperors 
of Russia and Germany and Japan, the Viceroy of India and 
the Magnates of Cuba and Canada and Mexico talked politics 
to him and religion from their own several standpoints. The 
greatest potentates of earth laid aside their rules and showed 

(297) 



2Q 3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

him a courtesy which was due of course in part to the nation 
he represented; but who ever so represented a nation before? 
not only the Government, but the plainest people in it from 
whom he sprang, whom he claimed as his fellows, whom he 
believed in as his political peers. The multitudes that 
thronged around him in Birmingham and Frankfort and 
Jeddo all knew this, and perceived, though dimly, that they 
were honoring the democratic principle in honoring him; 
while the sovereigns thought they were acting as became 
their own dignity in placing him by their side. 

It was my fortune to accompany General Grant in many 
of his journeys on both continents. I traveled with him 
first of all when he visited his armies. I was of the party 
when he passed from the Tennessee to the Potomac to lead 
in person the great forces that were destined to conquer Lee. 
I marched by his side from Washington to Richmond in 
1864-5 ; and that journey took us a year. I recollect in the 
Appomattox campaign, after Richmond had fallen, he once 
asked a rebel woman something about the Yankees, and she 
replied, " Oh, we are all Yankees now, I guess" with a 
marked emphasis on the guess. 

I was with Grant also in his tour through the South dur- 
ing 1 the winter after the war, when he was received, as few 
conquerors ever were by the people whom they had subdued, 
looked upon as their best friend, their protector, their savior 
from the bitterness of successful enemies. Everywhere the 
most important Southerners, the soldiers who had surrendered 
last, the civilians who had been most stubborn, as well as the 
scattered loyalists and the emancipated blacks, greeted Grant. 
In Charleston General Sickles gave him a dinner, and the 
part) w is made up of men like Or and Aiken and others 
who Ik d been his enemies. I went with him also on his first 
visit to Richmond, a year after it fell, for he had not time to 
Stop and enter in the hour of triumph like other victors, but 
pushed on alter Lee. 



GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 2 QQ 

So too I accompanied him in his journeyings over the 
North amid the ovations which this generation hardly re- 
members, but which equaled any ever paid to an American. 

I went with him when he left his country for the first 
time — it was to pass through Canada in 1865. We spent a 
day or two at Montreal and Quebec, and then came the first 
premonitions of the honors destined to be heaped upon him 
abroad twelve and fourteen years afterward. The Governor- 
General of Canada offered him a dinner, and pul him in the 
royal pew; the Canadian towns welcomed him almost as if he 
had saved their country or led their armies. 

I met him when he landed in England in 1877, and 
accompanied him, by permission of the Government, wher- 
ever he went in Great Britain. I was with him in Belgium, 
Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France. Always he was 
the same simple, impassive man, the genuine democrat. 
The compliments of Kings did not disturb him ; the adulation 
offered by whole populations did not elate him unduly 
that I could ever discern. After his departure from England 
and his short visit to Belgium he proceeded up the Rhine. 
At Cologne he was met by two officers of the army sent 
by the Emperor to welcome him to Germany. He visited 
the cathedral like any other traveler, and was interested 
in the villages and the ruins of the Rhine ; but he cared 
more for the fortresses of to-day, for Ehrenbreitstein and 
the bridge of boats than for the legends and castles of 
romance. We stopped for a night at Bingen, and after 
dinner he and I walked out into a fair and saw all the 
village shows ; he liked them quite as well as any palace 
with a history. He questioned the people through me 
and was curious about their ways, but he had never heard 
of Mrs. Norton's poem of "Bingen on the Rhine." 

At Frankfort he fell in with some of his Jewish friends, 
and was quite as much at home with the Seligmans as if 
they had been princes, though his last host had been the 



300 GRANT IN PEACE. 

King of the Belgians. Here he was taken to two famous 
wine-cellars, and tasted in each on the same morning twenty- 
eight different brands of Rhenish wine, of course only 
sipping from each glass. We began with ordinary wine and 
ascended in quality to the Johannisberger, so rare that it 
is reserved for the Emperor on holidays. The glasses were 
never filled with this precious liquid, and what was left was 
passed to the less important people in the party after the 
guests had been served. 

At Geneva for a change he laid the corner-stone of a 
Protestant church, and dined with an American, Mr. Barbey, 
at his charming villa. From the piazza we looked up at 
Mt. Blanc and watched the rose-tinted hues of the sunset 
as they fell on the distant snows. 

From Geneva we went on to Mt. Blanc. I was curious 
to discover what interest my chief would display in the 
world-renowned landscape. I fancied he might be indifferent 
to the marvels of mountain scenery, for I had never been 
with him in such regions before. But I was wrong. We 
traveled from Geneva to Chamounix and then by the Tete 
Noire to the Valley of the Rhone, in one of the ordinary 
open Swiss carriages, General and Mrs. Grant, Jesse and 
myself; and from the moment when we first approached Mt. 
Blanc so as to perceive its majesty, General Grant was 
as profoundly impressed as any of the party. He betrayed 
what to me was an entirely new side of his nature. At 
Chamounix we remained three days because he was so 
interested. I ascended with him the Montan Vert and 
crossed the Mer de Glace ; and he was full of appreciation. 
It was not only the crevasses that he wondered at and 
the glaciers that he admired, but all the stupendous grandeur 
of the scene was as apparent to him as if he had been a poet 
When we were up there together alone with no one but the 
guide, whose language the General could not understand, 
I found my chief susceptible to emotions of the sublime to a 



GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 



301 



degree that was a revelation of his character. I kept the 
alpenstock he carried that day, as a memento of my surprise. 
It stands in my library now — I can see it as I write, — by 
the coat that he slept in at Shiloh. 

-f At Chamounix a St. Bernard dog was presented to him, 
only six weeks old, but he could not carry the creature with 
him around the world and ordered it sent to my house in 
London. There two months later the noble brute arrived. 
It has been one of my most constant companions since ; 
it crossed the ocean with me, and even went to Cuba, 

"far enough from its native snows ; and more than once, as 
friend after friend proved false, the fond fidelity of Ponto has 
recalled the bitter words of De Stael : " The more I see of 
men, the better I appreciate dogs." 

Chamounix was hung with flags for the ex-President, and 
Mt. Blanc was illuminated. At night away up at the chalet 
where the climbers rest we saw a light gleaming over the 
snows which told that the Swiss mountaineers greeted 
the American democrat. 

We descended, as I said, by the Tete Noire, and all 
through the great mountain gorge the plain, unsentimental 
soldier was fully alive to the majestic character of the 
landscape. From Vernayaz we had intended to return to 
Geneva, but after reaching the Gorge du Trient, we went up 
the valley of the Rhone to Brieg. Then we ascended the 
Simplon, and again Grant was deeply impressed and in- 
terested. He often left the carriage to walk, so as the 
better to drink in the grandeur. At the hospice of the 
Simplon the monks had heard of him ; they got out their 
choicest home-made wine and spread their frugal lunch 
for the American commander. 

So we went on to Italy, over the road built by another 
general : Grant everywhere enjoying the novelty, appreciat- 
ing the scenery, studying the people. But he liked people 
always more than scenery, and the common people best 



302 GRANT IN PEACE. 

of all. At every town or village, as soon as we stopped 
for the night, he wanted to stroll out with me and watch the 
crowds returning from work, or in their shops, or on their 
little farms ; or at play or festival. At Domo d'Ossola there 
was a charming fete, with fireworks, dances, and music for 
" Our Lady of the Snows." He made me ask the peasants 
questions in their own language, for he was no linguist, 
as the world knows ; but he got at the people quicks- 
and often was himself his own and best interpreter. Noth- 
ing in all his travel delighted or interested him more than 
this going direct to the people themselves. It was Antasus 
touching earth. 

But he was sufficiently courteous to those who thought 
themselves " the great," when they came to offer him 
civilities. He was by no means indifferent to the evidences 
of his distinction. At a charming spot on one of the 
Italian lakes, where we staid for a clay cr two, one even- 
ing after dinner a Princess was announced — a handsome, 
sumptuous woman, with a famous Russian name. She came 
across the lake in her boat through the twilight, with attend- 
ants and a female friend, and was dressed in black, with a 
lace shawl thrown over her head and a blush red rose in her 
hair. She came to ask the General and his party to visit her 
villa in the neighborhood, called after herself, the " Villa 
Ada." The Princess was an American, she explained, but 
had married a great Russian, and was living away from home 
to educate her boys. The Prince unfortunately was absent, 
but she hoped to receive her great countryman at a mid-day 
dinner. General Grant accepted the invitation promptly, for 
he always availed himself of pleasant opportunities, like a 
true traveler; but Mrs. Grant could not say at once if she 
was disengaged. With a woman's instinct she wanted to 
find out more about her hostess. 

We learned, however, that the lady was in reality a 
Russian Princess, though an American by birth, and Mrs. 



GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 303 

Grant accompanied the General to the luncheon. The villa 
was charming, the situation perfect; scenery, sky, terraces, 
flowers — all Italian. The Princess was stately ; her man- 
ner became her rank ; she was not more than forty, if so 
old ; very handsome and especially amiable to Jesse, for Mrs. 
Grant always awed even Princesses if they paid too much 
attention to her great husband. We noticed many portraits 
of the Princess in theatrical costumes, Lucrezia, Semi- 
ramide, Norma ; and her highness explained that she was 
fond of fancy balls, and had been painted often after going 
to one. From the villa we returned to the hotel where a 
tenor singer wanted General Grant to patronize his concert. 
The General did not think this worth his while, and then the 
tenor spitefully exclaimed that General Grant might as well 
go to his concert as to the house of a former prima donna. 
The Princess was indeed an American girl who had come to 
Italy to study for the opera ; she had sung at La Scala and 
San Carlo, and pleased the fancy of the Prince, who married 
her. But she could not go to court, nor be recognized at 
St. Petersburg. This was why she lived in Italy. This 
accounted for the portraits of Lucrezia and Semiramide. 
There was no harm done ; the Princess was married ; but she 
had kept back her story when she invited Mrs. Grant. Her 
companion had an engagement at the time at the Neapolitan 
opera. Nevertheless the villa was beautiful, the lake was 
Italian, and the Princess was real, like her lace and her red 
rose. 

At Thusis there was another incident. One Sunday 
morning after the late Continental breakfast we were wait- 
ing for the vetturino, and sat in an arbor without the inn, 
looking up to the Via Mala. There was a little gate that 
opened on the arbor, and to this there came a short but 
stately woman of sixty years or more, dressed in black with- 
out a bonnet, but holding a parasol. She walked straight up 
to the group and looking over the gate asked if this was 



3°4 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



General Grant ; then made a profound courtesy such as they 
offer in Europe to sovereigns. Her face and voice seemed 
strangely familiar to me, but I could not recall where I had 
known cither. I rose, however, of course, and opened the 
gate, thinking she might be some duchess come to ask 
General Grant to dine with a Queen, and the visitor entered. 
She was invited to a seat, but did not tell her name. She 
had just come from the Engadine, where she had been 
greatly interested in a Swiss peasant who had served in the 
American army, and madame had promised if ever she met 
General Grant to implore him for a pension for her protege. 
General Grant had no more power than I had to obtain a 
pension, except according to the rules ; and as a consular 
officer I was familiar with the methods. I endeavored to 
explain this, but the beneficent stranger did not care for 
rules, she wanted the interposition of the ex-President ; the 
deus ex macJiina. Finally, however, she learned just how 
much or how little General Grant could do in the matter, 
and turned to take her leave. As she rose she said she had 
had the pleasure of knowing General Grant's daughter 
in England ; young Sartoris, who had married " Nellie 
Grant," was her nephew. Then I knew where I had seen 
the low forehead and stately air and heard the deep rich 
tones ; for this was Fanny Kemble. The connections 
exchanged a few further remarks, and the dramatic person- 
age made another courtesy such as Catharine of Arragon 
performed to Henry VIII., put up her black silk parasol 
again, and sailed away. 

At Heidelberg Grant met Wagner. The King of Music 
came to call on the man whose deeds were greater than any 
the other had ever celebrated in song or orchestra. The 
interview was peculiar ; neither of these who had so affected 
their fellows in so widely different ways could speak the 
other's language. Wagner, master as he was of expression, 
was mute in Grant's presence, and Grant, whose character is 



GRANT AS A TRAVELER. 



305 



akin, perhaps, to that of Wagner's heroes, was able only to 
reach the musician through an interpreter. Yet the meet- 
ing at this historic place, under the shadow of the ruined 
palace with its memories — of the latest master of modern 
art with the greatest warrior of American history — was an 
event worth chronicling. If Wagner had written an opera 
upon the " Wilderness " the grim and terrible fighter might 
have inspired an utterance equal to any of Tristan or Sigis- 
mund. If they have met since it is in that region where 
bards and heroes perhaps are equal; where the laurel is 
bestowed alike on deeds and thoughts. 

I was with General Grant in Rome, but there is no dis- 
guising the fact that he did not appreciate pictures or 
statuary. He refused to admire the Marcus Aurelius at the 
Capitol, though I took him to see it especially because it 
was equestrian : I thought he would like the horse. I went 
with him to the Vatican, but he passed straight through the 
wonderful gallery of marble and never wanted to linger ; he 
did not care for the Apollo or the Laocoon. He got tired of 
the Sistine Chapel, and poked fun at me when I wanted to 
look once more at the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo. 
He would not pretend. He was blind always to the beauties 
of art. I don't think he could ever tell a good picture from a 
bad one. 

In the same way he was utterly deaf to music. He never 
knew one tune from another ; he thought he could dis- 
tinguish " Hail to the Chief," it was played so often for him ; 
but if it was changed for Yankee Doodle he did not know 
the difference. I more than once heard him say at balls, he 
could dance very well if it wasn't for the music ; that always 
put him out. He took no interest even in Venice, and never 
wanted to see its famous " Stones " a second time. He had 
some slight appreciation of architecture, but not a keen one- 
The grandeur and form of the great cathedrals made an 
impression on him, but he liked Thebes better than Milan, 



2q6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the Pyramids than Cologne. The preference was typical. It 
was the colossal character that impressed him, not the 
artistic elaboration or effect ; just as in Nature it was the 
Alps rather than the smiling villages of the Rhine. Delicate 
beauties always were too small for him to grasp, both in 
literature and art. But it was more important for his 
country that he should be what he was than that he should 
appreciate the Venus of the Capitol or the Cathedral of 
St. Mark. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 

THE modern Ulysses traveled further than his classic 
namesake ; and his Penelope accompanied him. They 
once came upon the course of the ancient hero, and sailing 
along the Italian and Sicilian shores the story of the Odys- 
sey was told again. Mrs. Grant liked to be shown where 
the son of Laertes had landed, where he escaped from 
Calypso, or avoided Scylla or Charybdis. But the practical 
General was more curious about geography than mythology. 
The coasts and channels he inspected closely, but cared 
nothing for the fables of Homeric origin. Ancient history 
itself hardly interested him. I remember that in Rome, 
when I talked of the Forum and the Capitol, he replied that 
they seemed recent to him after Memphis and the Sphinx, 
which he had seen. Remote antiquity impressed him ; but 
the venerable associations that scholars prize had no charm 
for Grant. There was little room in his nature for senti- 
ment, though abundance of genuine feeling. 

At Homburg they dug up the grave of a Roman soldier 
for the American who had fought in a region the Romans 
never heard of, and Grant was attentive to the coins and the 
weapons in the tomb, but unmoved by the strangeness of the 
spectacle — the exhuming of a forgotten warrior for the 
inspection of another still in the prime of his renown. So, 
too, on Lake Luzerne, though he was never indifferent to 
mountains, the railroad on the Righi interested him far more 
than the famous scenery, and he examined the highway of 

(307) 



2o3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the Axenstrasse more carefully than the chapel of William 
Tell. At Cadenabbia he refused to visit the Villa Carlotta 
to see the marbles of Canova and Thorwaldsen, and at Berne 
he was vexed with his son, Jesse, and with me, because we 
insisted on viewing the Cathedral. He said we had seen 
Cologne and Mayence and Brussels, why should we waste 
our time on any more architecture. He was indeed a little 
unreasonable at first, as a traveler. If he could not discern 
the beauties of a cathedral or a gallery, he would not believe 
that others did. But later he became more catholic ; he 
found out that there might be things in heaven and earth 
he had not dreamed of in his earlier philosophy. 

In that same Berne he made me walk for hours with him, 
turning away from the Cathedral and the Bernese Oberland, 
to stray till we got lost among the narrow streets and the 
Swiss citizens. It was always indeed in men that he took 
the keenest interest; in the people, the peasants, the citi- 
zens, "greasy" though they often were. For without being 
coarse or ever in any way vulgar, he still was not over- 
refined. He had a healthy naturalness that affiliated with 
plain people, though it was not offended with princes. Yet 
he did not like these last because they were princes, as so 
many democrats do. He found out their human traits and 
touched them there. In this way he liked the Prince of 
Wales, despite the discourtesy of Marlborough House, 
because there is in the Prince a vein of heartiness which 
Grant discovered. If Albert Edward had not been royal he 
might have been a good fellow ; and Grant and he could 
have played cards or billiards together and enjoyed them- 
selves. 

Grant's own naturalness was always as refreshing as a 
breath of mountain air or the smell of the pine woods. 
Once, in the Brunig Pass, on the way to Thun, we stopped 
at a chalet where we dined. It was just beyond the great 
rock, which travelers will remember, that overhangs the 




' j 

I, 



v '! ; ' 






THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 309 

Pass. General Grant, Jesse, and I strolled on after dinner in 
advance of the vetturino, and the carriage came up to us 
empty. Mrs. Grant was not within. Her maid was called, 
and, almost crying, said she had not seen her mistress for 
nearly a quarter of an hour. We searched and called, but 
could not find her. The General became anxious, fearful 
lest she might have fallen over the precipitous sides of the 
road. But she did not leave us long in doubt. It was a 
•game of hide and seek in the Alps between the Conqueror 
of Vicksburg and the woman he had wooed and won more 
than a quarter of a century before. 

When we went up from Interlachen to Grindenwald he 
and Mrs. Grant flirted nearly all the way. They half quar- 
reled as to how they should sit, and wanted always to be by 
each other's side. Mrs. Grant once changed her seat so as to 
get a better view of the Wetterhorn ; this placed her opposite 
her husband, and General Grant, who was a grandfather and 
nearly sixty years old, didn't like it at all. Mrs. Grant per- 
ceived this, and coquettishly refused to return till we arrived 
at a certain point in the valley ; and the hero was uncom- 
fortable until Grindenwald was reached, and he could sit by 
the side of the mother of his grown-up children. Then he 
was happy again under the snows and the shadows of the 
Jungfrau. Neither the compliments of palaces nor the 
plaudits of two continents had lessened his simplicity or 
his domesticity. 

Sometimes, however, he made use of his greatness rather 
oddly. At a little town in Norway, I think it was Christiana, 
as soon as he arrived he went out alone to walk, and wan- 
dered away till he was lost. He could not speak a word of 
the language, and found no one who knew any more English 
than he did Norwegian. His topographical sense, which 
rarely deserted him, on this occasion was quite at fault ; and 
he was an hour or more trying to find his way. At last he 
approached an intelligent-looking man of the humbler sort, 



, IO GRANT IN PEACE. 

and said to him distinctly and several times, "General Grant, 
General Grant." Then by signs he indicated that he wanted 
to go to the hotel where General Grant was staying. The 
citizen did not suspect for a moment with whom he was 
speaking, but he knew, as every one did in the town, that 
General Grant had arrived ; he could not suppose that so great 
a personage would be walking unattended, but thought this 
was one of his party who was lost, and took him to the hotel 
to rejoin General Grant. There he found out whom he had 
led in the streets of Christiana; and doubtless in his family 
the tradition will long be told how their ancestor went about 
with the republican Haroun al Raschid. 

Once, at least, in America his name was of use to him. 
It was while he lived at Long Branch. He was taking the 
steamer that sails down New York bay, when a poor woman 
came aboard with two small children whom she wished to 
send to Long Branch. She could not herself accompany 
them, but they were to be met by friends on their arrival. 
The General was always fond of children, and seeing her 
anxiety, stepped up and offered to take charge of the little 
ones. But the mother hesitated to trust her children to a 
stranger. He delayed a moment, and then, blushing up to 
the eyes, he stammered: "I am General Grant." The 
woman looked at the features that were known to every 
American, and exclaimed: "Why, so you are!" And he 
took her babies to Long Branch. 

All his experiences were not like these. I had a score of 
letters from him telling of his reception by Asiatic sovereigns 
and Egyptian and Indian Viceroys, for I did not go with him 
further than Marseilles. Some curious things occurred in his 
Asiatic journey. In India the Governor-General and all the 
subordinate officials were profuse in courtesy and hospitality, 
and General Grant never failed to appreciate and remember 
their behavior. But there were indications after awhile that 
they must have received instructions from home not to pay 



THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. jn 

too much deference to the ex-President. He believed that 
the British Government was unwilling to admit to the half- 
civilized populations of the East that any Western Power was 
important, or that any authority deserved recognition except 
their own. At least on several occasions in the Chinese 
waters and around Burmah, Siam, and Japan there were 
marked failures in those compliments which were paid him 
everywhere else in Asia. I was then in England, but kept 
up a constant correspondence with him. Reading of the 
honors offered him in India, I suggested that when he left 
the British dominions in the East he should request the 
American Minister in London to thank the Government for 
the peculiar distinction with which he had been treated. 
But this was his reply : 

" I received your letter suggesting that I should write to Mr. 
Welsh on my departure from the last British colony, in time to 
have written from Hong Kong. But I did not do so because I did 
not feel like making acknowledgments to the Government for any 
exhibition of respect on their part, while I gratefully acknowledge 
the most marked hospitality and kindness from all British officials 
in the East. I do not care to write the reasons for distinguishing 
the people, official and unofficial, of England and the Government, 
but I will tell you some day." 

He told me fully afterwards. In December, 1878, he 
wrote to me : 

" Before your letter suggesting a letter of condolence to the 
Prince of Wales for the death of the Princess Alice and a letter of 
thanks to the President for his tender of a ship to take me East, I 
had written such a letter as the latter, but to the Secretary of the 
Navy, from whom the tender came, without allusion to the Presi- 
dent. On the whole, I thought it out of place, in the estimation of 
the American citizen, to write to the Queen, or for her." 

Nevertheless, a few months before he had said to me : 
" I wrote the Duke of Argyll a letter of condolence the very 



312 GRANT IN PEACE. 

moment I heard of the death of the Duchess, day before 
yesterday, I think." 

And so he went on from one potentate and people to 
another. At Bombay he wrote, four days after his arrival : 
" The reception here has been most cordial from the officials, 
foreign residents, Parsee merchants, and the better-to-do 
Hindoo natives. Myself and party were invited to occupy 
the Government House, where we are now staying, and 
where we have received princely hospitalities." From Cal- 
cutta a month later he wrote to me : " We have now done 
India from Bombay to Delhi and back to this place. We 
leave here to-morrow morning for Singapore. The English 
people have exceeded themselves in hospitalities. Nowhere 
but at one place have we been permitted to stop at a hotel, 
and there — Jubulpore — it was because no official had the 
spare room for our accommodation." 

The impression made on him in China was profound. I 
quote a few lines on this theme : 

" My visit through China was a pleasant one, though the coun- 
try presents no attractions to invite the visitor to make the second 
trip. From Canton to Pekin my reception by the civil and mili- 
tary authorities was the most cordial ever extended to any for- 
eigner, no matter what his rank. The fact is, the Chinese like 
Americans better, or rather, perhaps, hate them less, than any 
other foreigners. The reason is palpable. We are the only 
Power that recognizes their right to control their own domestic 
affairs. My impression is that China is on the eve of a great 
revolution that will land her among the nations of progress. They 
have the elements of great wealth and great power too, and not 
more than a generation will pass before she will make these ele- 
ments felt." 

Grant often said to me that the four greatest men he 
met abroad were Beaconsfield, Bismarck, Gambetta, and the 
Chinese statesman, Li Hung Chang. Japan, however, inter- 
ested him more than any country in the world, except his 



THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 



313 



own and England, where, indeed, he never felt as a foreigner ; 
for he loved England after he knew Englishmen at home. 
Of Japan he said : 

" We have now been in Japan for nearly a month. My recep- 
tion and entertainment has been the most extravagant I have ever 
known, or even read of This is a most beautiful coun- 
try and a most interesting people. The progress they have made 
in their changed civilization within twelve years is almost incredi- 
ble. They have now, military and naval academies, colleges, 
academies, engineering schools, schools of science, and free 
schools for male and female, as thoroughly organized and on as 
high a basis of instruction as any country in the world. Travel in 
the interior is as safe for an unarmed, unprotected foreigner as it 
is in the New England States. This is marvelous, when the 
treatment these people and all Eastern peoples receive at the hands 
of the average foreigner residing among them [is considered]. I 
have never been so struck with the heartlessness of nations as 
well as individuals as since coming to the East. But a day of 
retribution is sure to come. These people are becoming strong, 
and China is sure to do so also. When they do, a different 
policy will have to prevail from that imposed now." 

During this time Grant conceived many and large ideas 
in regard to an Oriental policy for this country, especially 
toward China and Japan ; and had he reached the Presidency 
again, it would have been a principal object of his Adminis- 
tration to inaugurate this policy. 

On the 28th of August, 1879, he wrote to me: 

" My visit to this interesting country and abroad is now draw- 
ing to a close. On the 2d of September we sail for San Francisco. 
Our reception and entertainment in Japan has exceeded anything 
preceding it. At the end of the first year abroad I was quite 
homesick, but determined to remain to see every country in 
Europe at least. Now at the end of twenty-six months I dread 
going back, and would not if there was a line of steamers between 
here and Australia. But I shall go to my quiet little home in 
Galena and remain there until the cold drives me away." 



314 GRANT IN PEACE. 

No man enjoyed ordinary travel, the seeing strange 
sights and different countries and nations more than Grant ; 
and no man ever had his extraordinary opportunities. Under 
these his mind and character grew and enlarged ; he received 
all the benefits of contact with so many minds, of witnessing 
so many civilizations, of studying so many intellectual and 
moral varieties of man. He had not in his youth the advan- 
tage of what is called a liberal education, but no man ever 
trod this earth more highly educated than Grant by events 
and experiences and opportunities, and attrition with the 
highest natures, and association with the grandest companies 
in the grandest sense of the word. 

He kept up his connection with his great compeers after 
his return. He corresponded with more than one King, and 
when the history of his campaigns, on which I. had been 
engaged for fifteen years, and in which his interest had been 
almost equal to my own — was at last complete — he sent a 
copy to every potentate all over the world by whom he had 
been entertained ; to the Mikado of Japan and to Bismarck ; 
to the Viceroy of India and the Kings of Siam and Sweden 
and Greece; the Prince of Wales and the Presidents of 
Switzerland and the French Republic; and every one ac- 
knowledged the present except the Prince of Wales. 

The collection of these letters was of course peculiarly 
interesting to me, and he allowed me to keep it for years ; 
but I returned it to him unasked, for his family, whose claims 
upon it I thought superior to my own. In June, 1882, he 
wrote me a letter from which I copy the postscript: "The 
mail lying before me when you were in had the acknowledg- 
ments from Lytton [Lord Lytton, then Viceroy of India], 
the first received. Next I believe was from the King of 
Siam." It was the reward of my labors that I was allowed 
to share these congratulations with the conqueror of Lee and 
the guest of the nations and the rulers of Europe and Asia. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE THIRD TERM. 

GRANT'S relief at being freed from the cares and en- 
tanglements of political life was at first so great that 
any reference by his friends to the possibility of his re-enter- 
ing office was extremely distasteful to him. Nevertheless 
when the great railfoad strikes of 1877 occurred, in the first 
year after his retirement, his letters from America abounded 
with allusions to the situation, and not a few expressed the 
wish that a "strong man" fitted to cope with the emergency 
had been at the head of the Government. Of course there 
was no possibility of his returning to place at that time, but 
if the crisis had lasted and there had been a general demand 
for his services, I think he would not then have hesitated to 
perform what he might have considered a public duty. The 
idea of some such possibility was certainly presented to his 
mind ; and although he was always the last man to prepare 
for unlikely contingencies, he still was revolving what might 
be incumbent on him in case the gravity of the situation 
increased. He admitted to me on more than one occasion 
that it might become his duty to return to public life. Of 
course he had not the slightest thought of taking any such 
step except in accordance with constitutional provisions, and 
he certainly had no desire to resume the cares which he had 
so recently laid aside. He simply did not mean to shrink 
from any of the responsibilities which his past career and 
the appreciation of his countrymen might impose. 

But the crisis passed away, and he felt a genuine satis- 

(315) 



316 GRANT IN TEACE. 

faction at this result ; first, because of the relief to the coun- 
try, and next, because the shadow of further public station 
had faded from his own future. After this, he was more 
averse than ever to the thought of again becoming a Presi- 
dential aspirant. But his triumphal tour abroad suggested 
the idea to his friends at home, many of whom were anxious 
that he should be kept out of the country in order to avoid 
premature political complications. As early as March, 1878, 
he wrote to me from Rome : " Most every letter I get from 
the States, like Porter's to you, asks me to remain abroad. 
They have designs for me which I do not contemplate for 
myself. It is probable that I will return to the United 
States either in the fall or early next spring." This remark 
was meant for me as much as for any one else, for I had not 
hesitated to let him know that I thought the country would 
desire his return to power ; but at that time he had said no 
word to warrant me in supposing that he entertained the 
idea. 

He did not, it is true, return to America so soon as he 
had expected, but this was because of an improvement in his 
financial circumstances. When he first arrived in England, 
he told me that he had only $25,000 to spend in foreign 
travel ; if that would last two years he could stay abroad two 
years, but if it became exhausted sooner he would be obliged 
to return. He was treated so much like a sovereign that his 
expenses were proportionally increased, and of course the 
sum that he mentioned did not hold out nearly as long as he 
had hoped ; but his son Ulysses, then living in California, 
was able to make certain investments for his father which 
resulted in placing nearly $60,000 at his disposal, and then 
General Grant was enabled to travel as far and as long as he 
pleased. Accordingly, he extended his stay. 

I wrote to him in the latter part of 1S7S, repeating some- 
thing that had been said to me about the possible effect of 
my history of his campaigns upon his political prospects, and 



THE THIRD TERM. ^17 

suggesting that the concluding volumes should be delayed 
until his return to America ; but he replied : " I do not see 
what the publication of the book at any particular time can 
have to do with the formation of public opinion as to political 
objects. It has been a long time .in preparation, and the 
public has known all about it. If the work should be with- 
held, the public might say that there was an object in that. 
I would go on as fast as possible, and when the book is ready 
publish it. Let the public say what they please." 

In the early part of 1879 he left Europe for the last time. 
I accompanied him as far as Marseilles, where he took a 
steamer for the East, and up to that day he had said no 
word to me, nor, I am confident, to any other human being, 
defining his intentions or desires in regard to a third term. 
Mrs. Grant often assured me that, so far as she could judge, 
he had formed no determination in the matter. I believe 
that at this time he had neither expectation nor ambition to 
return to power. 

He showed this very plainly by insisting, against the 
advice of nearly every political friend he had in the world, on 
returning to America. Every one who knew anything about 
American politics could foresee an immense enthusiasm on 
his arrival, which, if it was developed opportunely, might 
sweep him into the Presidency, while, if time were allowed 
for it to cool, all the opposition and efforts of rival candidates 
could, of course, be concentrated, and render, even his renom- 
ination difficult. This was said or written to him in a hun- 
dred forms by the men who wished his renomination and 
thought themselves sufficiently intimate or important to offer 
their views. But he paid no attention to the advice, and 
returned to America in the autumn of 1879, nearly a year 
before the Presidential election, and more than six months 
sooner than his supporters desired. The reason he always 
assigned for this was that Mrs. Grant wanted to see her chil- 
dren. He himself was far from being tired of travel. On 



318 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the i st of August, 1879, ne wrote to me: "At the end of 
twenty-six months I dread going backhand would not if there 
were a line of steamers between here and Australia. But I 
shall go to my quiet little home in Galena, and remain there 
until the cold drives me away. Then I shall probably go 
South — possibly to Havana and Mexico — to remain until 
April." On the 30th of the same month he wrote to me: 

"I do not feel bad over the information gave you. I 

am not a candidate for any office, nor would I hold one that 
required any manoeuvring or sacrifice to obtain." 

The enthusiasm that attended his welcome was greater 
than the most sanguine had anticipated, and gave him the 
keenest gratification. In December he wrote me a long 
account of it from Philadelphia. In this letter he said: 
" To-day I start for Cuba and Mexico." But he continued : 
" I expect to be back in Galena as soon as the weather gets 
pleasant in the spring, and to remain there until time to go 
to Long Branch. I will then have the summer to arrange 
for a permanent home and occupation. It may be the [Nica- 
ragua] canal, in which case I shall live in New York City. 
It must be employment or a country home. My means will 
not admit of a city home without employment to supplement 
them." I replied that I thought the country would find an 
employment for him that would require him to live in Wash- 
ington. But to this he made no response. 

In April I returned to the United States and found that 
he had already arrived from Mexico and gone as he intended 
to his little home in Galena. The country was at this time 
in the full flood of excitement that precedes the Presidential 
nominations. Grant's stubbornness in returning had pro- 
duced exactly the result that his friends had foreseen. Time 
was given fertile opposition to crystallize; his rivals recov- 
ered from their first shock of astonishment at his popularity ; 
the dislike entertained in man)- quarters lor a third term was 
worked up vigorously, and the political world was in the 



THE THIRD TERM. 3!q 

midst of a battle. Whether the instinct of fight was aroused 
in him, whether he felt after prolonged rest a willingness for 
new labors, or whether after so wide and varied an experience, 
abroad as well as at home, he was conscious of a greater 
fitness than ever for high place — it is hard to say. All 
these considerations may have influenced him ; the advice 
and persuasion of most of those who had been closest either 
as political or personal friends may have told ; the pressure 
of his own family, naturally eager to regain the position they 
had once enjoyed, was incessant ; and Grant allowed every 
step to be taken to present his - name to the country and the 
convention without one sign of disapproval. Delegates were 
chosen pledged to vote for him ; important statesmen known 
to have always been in his confidence openly advocated his 
nomination ; yet with that singular reticence which he some- 
times displayed, he made neither public nor private utterance 
on the subject, and men like Conkling, Cameron, and Logan 
declared in intimate conferences that Grant had never said to 
either that he would be a candidate. He always had a 
superstitious feeling, which he describes in his memoirs, that 
he would fail in any effort made by himself to secure his own 
advancement. He had done nothing whatever to promote 
his first nomination, and nothing directly for his second ; and 
he determined now to follow the same course in regard to 
a third. 

He finally, however, became extremely anxious to receive 
the nomination. In May I went out to visit him at Galena ; 
but before I reached that place he had arrived at Chicago, at 
the home of his son, Colonel Grant. At Chicago, I saw him 
constantly, either at Colonel Grant's house, or more fre- 
quently at General Sheridan's headquarters ; for his son was 
on Sheridan's staff. I accompanied him on a visit to Elihu 
B. Washburne, and dined with him at the house of Russell 
Jones, his former Minister to Belgium. Both these gentle- 
men were avowed supporters of General Grant, and in their 



320 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



presence conversation was unrestrained, and the prospects 
were discussed as freely as they would have been before any 
other expectant candidate. 

It was now only a few weeks before the convention, and 
Grant manifested as much anxiety as I ever saw him display 
on his own account ; he calculated the chances, he counted 
the delegates, considered how every movement would affect 
the result, and was pleased or indignant at the conversion of 
enemies or the defection of friends, just as any other human 
being naturally would have been under the same circum- 
stances ; only it was hardly natural in him, who was used to 
concealing his personal feeling in all things. Of course this 
freedom was only with his especial intimates, his family, and 
a very few other tried friends whom he chanced to meet at 
this time. But that he disclosed his interest at all showed 
how profoundly it must have stirred him. 

I had not met him for more than a year, during which 
period he had gone through his wonderful experience in the 
East, had obtained his knowledge of China and Japan, and con- 
ceived an Oriental policy for this country which he believed 
so important that a desire to achieve it was certainly one 
reason why he was so anxious to return to power. All who 
met him were impressed with his views in regard to those 
Asiatic countries, the relations with them which he thought 
might be developed, the trade we might create, the immense 
advantage both they and we might receive from an intimate 
understanding. His opinions were very broad, and he talked 
with a knowledge of the subject that made him fluent, and 
an interest which at times almost inspired him to eloquence. 
Once or twice he addressed a party of twenty or thirty men 
of importance in business or affairs, and enchained their atten- 
tion for hours while he laid before them his information and 
his views. Mexico also was a favorite theme, and a Mexican 
policy was already germinating in his brain. As a rule I do 
not consider that General Grant's intellect was remarkable for 



THE THIRD TERM. 32 1 

originality ; he absorbed the best points in the views of others 
and constructed out of them his own finest schemes and suc- 
cesses, making them, however, completely his own ; but in 
these Oriental and Mexican measures he seems to me to have 
been entirely original. He had become a profound thinker 
and an international statesman during his travels. He had 
seen other countries, both the peoples and the rulers ; the 
emperors and tycoons and sultans, and the ministers and 
parliaments and the nations themselves ; his views were 
widened, and his whole character changed ; but at the same 
time his national feeling and his democratic preferences were 
intensified. He was never so fit to be President as when his 
party rejected him. 

I am sure, from what he said, that he was conscious of 
most of his former errors in political administration, and 
intended to rectify them. He was large and generous in his 
feeling for the South, and had, indeed, become as popular in 
the region where he had fought as among the soldiers who 
had followed him thither. It was believed by his adherents 
that he would have polled a large vote in the Southern States 
and broken down the line of a solid South as no man yet had 
succeeded in doing. Of course these are surmises, but I 
recite them because they affected him, and because consider- 
ations of this sort were prominent motives of his conduct at 
this time. 

After a stay of a few days in Chicago, I returned to the 
East, and shortly afterward Mr. Russell Young, who had 
accompanied Grant during the greater part of his European 
and Asiatic tour, went out to visit him at Galena. Young 
was opposed to Grant's third nomination, principally, per- 
haps, because he thought he could not be elected. He had 
long and repeated conversations with the General, in which 
* he represented the views of those of Grant's friends who 
were averse to his standing again. Mrs. Grant suspected 
Young's purpose, and tried tc thwart it ; and the discussions 



322 



GRANT IN TEACE. 



between Young and the General were usually carried on in 
her absence. This was only a few days before the conven- 
tion was to meet at Chicago. General Grant had even yet 
made no outspoken declaration of his intention, though, of 
course, having allowed his friends to use his name without 
objection, he could not in honor withdraw it without their 
consent. But Young induced him to write a letter, addressed 
to Senator Cameron, authorizing his friends, if they saw fit, 
to withdraw his name from the convention. This was a most 
extraordinary influence for any one man to exert with Grant, 
and I have known few parallel instances. Young, however, 
doubtless appeared as the spokesman of others whose opin- 
ions backed his own, though his fidelity and friendship gave 
weight to what he said. But the letter was sent, in opposi- 
tion to the views of Mrs. Grant and without her knowledge, 
and was calculated, of course, to dampen the enthusiasm and 
bewilder the counsels of Grant's most devoted adherents. I 
can conceive of no step more unlike General Grant's ordinary 
character or behavior than this half-way reversal of what he 
had previously countenanced. But it was too late to recede ; 
his friends had committed both him and themselves, and 
they were not influenced by this phase of irresolution which 
had passed over him. They made no use of the letter, Gen- 
eral Grant kept no copy of it, nor did Young, and those to 
whom it was submitted have never made it public. Grant 
never censured them for the fidelity that disregarded his 
suggestion of withdrawal, and all the remainder of his life he 
remained more than grateful to the men who supported him 
so faithfully at Chicago, just as he never forgave any who he 
thought betrayed him at that time. He never afterward 
spoke except with bitterness of his lifetime friend Wash- 
burne, who, he believed, I know not how rightly, had played 
him false ; and he remembered the violence of some who 
supported Mr. Blaine with an acrimony that was not confined 
to them, but was extended to his great rival. Even former 



THE THIRD TERM. 323 

followers who did not support him in the concluding political 
effort of his life never held the same place in his personal 
regard. His failure embittered his feeling toward all who 
contributed to it. 

This remark has no reference to Young. Grant followed 
Young's counsel, and in the end perhaps wished that others 
had done so too. It was at his urgent advice that Mr. 
Young was afterward appointed by President Arthur, Min- 
ister to China. 

But though Grant's disappointment was acute it was not 
manifested with any loss of dignity. The world knows how 
soon he accepted defeat and fell into line as a follower in 
that party of which he had so long been the head; how he 
supported Mr. Garfield, and though an ex-President, attended 
political meetings and made political speeches in behalf of 
the man who aspired to the place he had held and had again 
expected to fill. 

On the 23d of June, two weeks after the result of the 
convention was known, he wrote to me from Galena : "I am 
glad you are getting on so well with your book. Hope to see 
. it out before you return to England. It will not probably 
have so great a sale at once as it would have had the result 
at Chicago been what many thought it would be. But it 
will have a long run, finding a market long after you and I 
are gone." 

This was all that he said to me on the subject till we met 
in October, when I accompanied him on his political tour. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

GRANT AND GARFIELD. 

UNTIL June, 1880, there had been nothing at all remark- 
able in the relations of Grant with the man who out- 
stripped him at Chicago. The most prominent of the 
Western generals was not likely to see much of the chief-of- 
staff of a distant commander, and in 1863, when Garfield was 
promoted to the rank of major-general, he had served only a 
few months under Grant. In the second year of the war he 
was elected to Congress, and after the battle of Chickamauga, 
Garfield resigned his military commission and applied him- 
self to civil duties, in which he was destined to rise to 
greater eminence. He was in Congress during the entire 
period of Grant's Administration, and was always a loyal 
political supporter of the head of his party; but there was no 
approach to intimacy between them. 

After the nominations at Chicago, Grant remained for a 
while entirely undemonstrative. He sent no congratulations 
to his victor and gave no intimation of the course he intended 
to pursue. The result of the Convention was entirely un- 
anticipated by him, and his disappointment was certainly 
keen. In July he went off to Colorado, where he remained 
for a month or more, and his silence was so prolonged that 
many believed he intended to support Hancock; but of this 
there was never a possibility. 

At last in September he made known his acceptance of 
the decision of his party. Up to that time the prospects 
of Garfield had not been brilliant. He was comparatively 

(324) 



GRANT AND GARFIELD. 325 

unknown to the country and lacked the peculiar elements of 
popularity in illustrious service and national reputation, 
which Grant and Blaine and Sherman, his three competitors 
before the Convention, all enjoyed. His friends soon found 
that there was need to enlist the aid of the great soldier of 
the country ; for the adherents of Grant were chagrined at 
their defeat and many still held aloof, while the followers of 
Mr. Blaine, who had thrown their votes for Garfield rather 
than consent to the nomination of Grant, were not sufficient 
to secure the election of the unlooked-for candidate. Repre- 
sentations were accordingly made to Grant of the necessity 
for his support ; and he himself felt that having allowed his 
name to be presented to the Convention, it was in good 
faith incumbent on him to acquiesce in its decision. 
Besides this he was thoroughly convinced that the interests 
of the country required the election of a Republican Presi- 
dent. It was at a political meeting in Indiana that he first 
made public his intention to support his former subordinate. 
This utterance was followed by a demonstration from Conk- 
ling, not only Grant's most prominent champion at Chicago, 
but himself only four years before a popular candidate for the 
Presidency. When these two had spoken it was plain that 
the entire Republican party would be united under Garfield 
as its chief and standard-bearer. 

But Grant was not content with a simple expression of 
opinion. At Garfield's urgent request he consented to pay 
him a visit ; at Mentor, the home of the candidate, he was 
met by Mr. Conkling, and the two were entertained by the 
man who had overtopped them both. After this Grant took 
a still more unusual course. He attended numerous political 
meetings, at nearly every one of which he made a short 
address, setting forth his reasons for desiring Republican 
success. No ex-President had taken such a step before, and 
it was still more remarkable in Grant, who had not been a 
partisan before becoming President, and had never shown an 



326 GRANT IN PEACE. 

aptitude for political or hardly for public speaking of any 
sort. But having made up his mind that patriotism and 
party loyalty required him to do what he could for the 
election of Garfield he stopped short of no effort within his 
power. He put away his mortification and disappointment, 
became a subordinate instead of a chief, and went about delib- 
erately and continually as a faithful member of that party he 
had himself so often led to victory. I saw him constantly 
during all this period, and used to marvel at his magnanimity; 
but he never made any allusion to the especial sacrifice his 
action must have cost him ; that he felt it to the core, I am 
sure. 

The influence of his presence and his popularity contri- 
buted greatly to the success of the campaign. Garfield 
was elected by a small majority, and it is not claiming much 
for Grant to say that he controlled votes enough to make 
up this majority. I was present with him at public meetings 
in New York, New England, and New Jersey, and I saw the 
enthusiasm he evoked. I stood by him during the great 
procession of the Boys in Blue in New York a few nights 
before the election. The pageant lasted from nearly mid- 
night till four in the morning, but he remained upon the 
platform until the last man had passed ; Chester A. Arthur, 
the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, stood by his side, 
reaping the benefit of Grant's popularity. Grant even be- 
came so much interested during the campaign that he made 
remarks about Hancock which not only the adherents of 
the Democratic candidate, but Hancock himself, resented 
keenly. There had been a coolness between them ever since 
the days of the Andrew Johnson imbroglio, when Hancock, 
against Grant's urgent advice, accepted the place of Sheridan 
at New Orleans. This feeling was increased by the tone of 
Grant's utterances now. 

Apart from this, however, there was no bitterness aroused, 
even among Democrats, on account of Grant's course. I was 



GRANT AND GARFIELD. -,27 

present on half a score of occasions when he was traveling by 
train and the car that carried him chanced to stop near the 
point where a Democratic meeting was in progress. Again 
and again it happened that the meeting adjourned temporarily 
while its members marched in a body to the station to salute 
General Grant. They cheered him, their bands played 
"Yankee Doodle" and " Hail to the Chief " for him, many 
shook him by the hand, and then they returned to their 
meeting in favor of Hancock. That the friend of a rival 
candidate and the representative of a rival party could draw 
crowds of his opponents to greet him in the midst of an 
excited canvass was a singular proof of his hold on the 
affections of his countrymen. It showed that they separated 
the soldier and the patriot from the politician, and admired 
and approved the one while they opposed and condemned the 
other. 

After the election and until the inauguration of Garfield, 
Grant was in no way in the counsels of the incoming 
Administration. He took, however, a lively interest in the 
formation of the new Cabinet, but was not invited to offer his 
views. When Robert Lincoln's name was mentioned for 
Secretary of War it was reported that Grant objected to the 
appointment. I knew to the contrary and asked permission 
of the General to say this to Lincoln. He was more than 
willing to assent, and I wrote to Mr. Lincoln that so far 
from objecting, General Grant would be veiy glad to see him 
Secretary of War ; and added that he was at liberty to use 
the information. Lincoln replied, expressing his thanks and 
his appreciation of Grant's good wishes, but he never said 
either to Grant or me that he found the indorsement valuable. 

When it was first announced that Blaine was to be made 
Secretary of State, Grant would not believe the appointment 
possible, and after it became certain that the man he regarded 
as his most prominent enemy was to be chief of Garfield's 
Cabinet, his mortification was extreme. At first he declared 



328 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



that he should withhold all support from the Administration 
if Blaine became a member ; but he soon thought better 
of this and went to Washington a few days after the 4th 
of March. He visited the President and was invited to 
breakfast. On his return I spent several hours with him and 
he told me that Garfield had assured him of his gratitude and 
of his desire to regard Grant's wishes so far as possible in his 
policy and appointments. 

On the 22d of March I went to Washington, having 
passed the previous evening with Grant ; I carried a letter 
from him to the President requesting that I might be retained 
at London, where I was still Consul-General. I went, how- 
ever, first to the Senate Chamber to visit Senator Conkling, 
who informed me that my name had been sent to the Senate 
that very morning as Charge d'Affaires at Copenhagen. The 
change in the Custom House of New York had been made 
which brought about the famous political contest between Gar- 
field and Blaine on one side, and Grant, Conkling, and Arthur 
on the other. Robertson, whose course at Chicago had secured 
the defeat of Grant, and who was therefore the man in the 
whole country most objectionable to Grant and his partisans, 
was made Collector of New York, although according to all 
the recognized rules of political courtesy, Conkling should 
have been consulted ; and Merritt, the friend and appointee 
of Sherman, was ousted to make room for Robertson. I was 
removed from London in favor of Merritt ; General Grant's 
brother-in-law, Mr. Cramer, the Charge d'Affaires at Denmark, 
was displaced for me, and Mr. Nicholas Fish, the son of 
Grant's Secretary of State, was removed from the position of 
Charge at Berne to make room for Cramer. Merritt, Cramer, 
and I were each placed where we had no desire to be, 
and Fish lost his position altogether. All this had been done 
without any premonition or warning to Grant, who had seen 
the President two days before and received his assurances of 
friendship and deference. 



GRANT AND GARFIELD. 3 2Q 

Of course the President had the right to make what 
changes he pleased in the public service, but Grant thought 
that after what he had done to secure Garfield's election he 
should have been consulted in the disposition made of his 
personal friends, and he felt that the changes were intended 
to be offensive to him. But although greatly amazed he at 
first withheld any public expression of opinion. He tele- 
graphed to me on the 24th of March in these words : " See 
the President at once with my letter. Ask him to withdraw 
your nomination, and if he cannot leave you in London, ask 
him to give you either Italy or Naval Office in this city. 
Show him this dispatch as my endorsement of you for either 
place." At the Executive Mansion I met Merritt, who had 
come on from New York to save himself from taking my 
place, and as we walked up the stairs — to the American 
salle des pas perdus — we laughed at each other, and each 
declared he did not wish for a change. The President and I 
were old acquaintances. He had been my guest more than 
once in Washington. He said he had supposed I would like 
the new arrangement, which was a nominal promotion so far 
as I was concerned ; I was to have a pleasant and easy 
diplomatic post instead of a busy consular one ; it was higher 
in rank and would leave leisure sufficient to prosecute my 
literary pursuits. He disclaimed any intention of disapprov- 
ing my services or displeasing General Grant ; but he gave 
me no reason to suppose he would change his plans. 

When I reported the result of my interview to General 
Grant he telegraphed me again : " I advise you to decline 
Copenhagen and stick to London, unless you can get Naval 
Office or Italy, or some equally good place. Advise with 
Conkling and Piatt. It would be better to come here with- 
out Government appointment than to take Copenhagen." 
My relatives and personal friends gave me different advice 
and thought I would do better to accept the mission to 
Denmark ; but I considered myself bound to defer to General 



330 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Grant, and finally requested the President to withdraw my 
nomination as Charge to Copenhagen. This he did, but 
offered me no other appointment, and he did not recall that 
of Merritt, so that if Merritt should be confirmed I would be 
out of office altogether. I remained a few weeks in Wash- 
ington, consulting not only with Senators Conkling and 
Logan, but constantly with Vice-President Arthur, and once 
returning to New York to take the advice of General Grant. 
I saw the President several times and he sent his secretary 
to me more than once to urge me to accept the appointment 
to Copenhagen, as that would relieve him from the appear- 
ance of disregarding General Grant's personal wish ; but I 
could not disobey the injunction of my own chief. 

General Grant's urgency in the matter was by no means 
solely on my account, although he admitted in letters that 
were published at the time his interest for me and for his 
brother-in-law; but the instinct of fight was aroused in the 
soldier. He thought too that he had deserved different 
treatment at Garfield's hands, and he felt the nomination of 
Robertson more keenly than the removal of Cramer, or Fish, 
or my own. 

Garfield, however, remained firm, but as the nominations 
were all opposed in the Senate, I returned to my post in 
England to await the result, while General Grant went to 
Mexico on business. From there he wrote to me : " I will 
never again lend my aid to the support of a Presidential 
candidate who has not strength enough to appear before a 
convention as a candidate, but gets in simply by the adhe- 
rents of prominent candidates preferring any outsider to 
either of the candidates before the convention save their 
own." 

In June, however, he sent me word that he thought after 
all I might as well accept the Copenhagen mission, and I 
replied that if I had his full sanction I should like to do so 
rather than leave the public service. Accordingly the matter 



GRANT AND GARFIELD. 231 

was arranged through General Horace Porter and Robert 
Lincoln, the Secretary of War. Mr. Lincoln obtained a 
promise from the President that I should be appointed again 
to Copenhagen, if I would pledge myself in advance to accept 
the post. But before this arrangement could be carried out 
Garfield was struck down by the assassin. 

General Grant had in the meantime returned from Mexico 
and gone to his house at Long Branch. Both Conkling and 
Piatt had resigned their positions in the Senate, and after a 
long struggle at Albany their successors were elected. Grant's 
feeling, however, had by this time become somewhat mollified, 
and when Garfield visited Long Branch, Grant called on him 
and the President expressed great satisfaction at the courtesy. 
Nevertheless General Grant had fully sympathized with the 
feeling of Mr. Conkling and Vice-President Arthur, and had 
come in for his share of unpopularity with those who supported 
Garfield, as well as with that large portion of the community 
which always worships power. I remember that my publish- 
ers assured me that the sale of my History of Grant's Cam- 
paigns, which appeared at this time, was greatly injured by 
the course that General Grant took at this crisis : the people 
said they wanted no more of Grant. 

When Garfield was shot the public indignation in some 
quarters was even turned toward his predecessor, and there 
were found those who were willing for a day or two to believe 
that General Grant was not displeased at the awful fate of 
the President. Of course this unjust clamor was only momen- 
tary and never genuine, but it was strange to see any portion 
of the public directing such suspicions toward the man who 
not a year before had been the object of ovations greater 
than any other American had ever received. It would be 
preposterous to offer to vindicate his fame from such asper- 
sions now, but a letter that he wrote me on the subject will 
nevertheless be interesting. On the 27th of July, he said : 

" I am just this day in receipt of two letters from you of the 



532 GRANT IN PEACE. 

latter part of June. Why they have been so long coming I cannot 
conceive. A few days after your letters were written, as you know, 
the dastardly attempt was made upon the President's life. This of 
course has put a stop to all communications on the subject of 
foreign appointments — in fact all Presidential appointments. I 
had told Porter before this trouble came that I thought probably 
you had better after all accept the Copenhagen appointment for 
the present. Whether Porter had an opportunity to mention the 
subject before the wounding of the President or not I do not 
know. This attempt upon the life of General Garfield produced a 
shock upon the public mind but little less than that produced by 
the assassination of Lincoln. The intensity of feeling has some- 
what died out in consequence of the favorable reports of the 
patient's condition from day to day ; but now more alarm is being 
felt for his safety. I myself have felt until within the last three or 
four days that there was scarcely a doubt about his recovery. 
Now, however, I fear the chances are largely against it. But by 
the time this reaches you more certainty will be felt one way or 
the other. The crime is a disgrace to our country, and yet cannot 
be punished as it deserves. I have been very busy, though not 
accomplishing much, which must be my excuse for not writing 
sooner." 

In September Garfield died, and Grant had the strange 
fate of following the coffin of another of his great opponents. 
He had been at the funerals of Chase, Sumner, Motley, and 
Greeley, and now of Garfield. In every instance the disputes 
of earth were hushed in the awful presence of that antagonist 
who overcomes each of us in our turn ; but in Garfield's case 
the solemnity was greater still, for the pall of the dead 
President reminded his predecessor of that other and even 
greater martyrdom which had occurred in the same capital, and 
of that funeral in which he had followed another and greater 
President. The next obsequies at which the Nation mourned 
were destined to be his own. 

I cannot close this chapter without reminding the reader 
that these pages are professedly based upon my personal 



GRANT AND GARFIELD. ,,^ 

knowledge, and that therefore my own experiences and such 
relations as I may have borne to the events I describe may 
seem unduly prominent. But in no other way can I tell 
what I witnessed or prove the trustworthiness of my reports. 
I give nothing at second-hand except upon such authority as 
cannot be gainsaid — the authority always of other witnesses. 
Only in this way can I offer the material for history which I 
venture to believe this volume will become. 

And if at times I seem to disclose secrets which show 
that men are human, even men whom the country has wished 
to deify, I believe that in the end, when the greatest are seen 
to be made of flesh and blood, their countrymen will feel a 
keener and profounder sympathy with the real beings I 
describe than with any fanciful creations fit only for the 
stories of mythology. The very faults of great men ally 
them to us, and Grant himself wrote to me at this very time : 
" You give true history in regard to them and furnish the 
proof as you go along. While I would not wish to detract 
from any one, I think history should record the truth." I 
believe if he knows what I write now he approves my course. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

GRANT AND ARTHUR. 

GRANT'S first important relations with Arthur were 
in 1871, when he appointed the friend of Conkling 
Collector of the Port of New York. Arthur was retained 
in this position during the subsequent years of Grant's two 
Administrations and was always a warm and faithful supporter 
of his chief. There was, however, no approach to intimacy, 
personal or political, between them at this time. The Col- 
lector was too far off from the President for the idea to 
occur to either. 

In 1880 Arthur went to Chicago a fervent adherent of 
Grant, and was steadfast under Conkling's lead in the advo- 
cacy of a third term. When Garfield was nominated the 
Vice-Presidential place on the ticket was tendered to him as 
a sort of propitiatory reparation to Conkling. The nomina- 
tion for the Presidency had itself been suggested for Conk- 
ling by some who were willing to support him, though they 
would not accept Grant ; but Conkling declared that he had 
gone to the convention to nominate Grant, and rather than 
receive the prize he was pledged to obtain for another he 
would cut his right arm from his body. Arthur, however, 
stood in a different relation ; he was under no such pledge to 
Grant, stated or implied, and there was no reason why he 
should not accept the nomination. 

Grant found no fault with the candidate, though like every- 
body else at the time he thought Arthur little fitted for the 
second position in the country; but there seemed no proba- 

(334) 



GRANT AND ARTHUR. 33c 

bility that his abilities would be specially tested ; and when 
Grant signified his adherence, he accepted Arthur as willingly 
as he did Garfield. Neither was in any way personally 
objectionable to him. He at once treated Arthur with all 
the consideration due to a candidate for the Vice-Presidency ; 
he had a certain regard for official position not unnatural in 
one who had held so many important places himself, and who 
of late years had passed so much of his time with personages 
of high political consequence. 

During the campaign I chanced to enter Delmonico's 
cafe one evening with Jesse Grant and found the candidate 
for the Vice-Presidency sitting at one of the tables. It was 
the first time either of us had met him since his nomination, 
and we went up to congratulate him. I remember that he 
said to Jesse: " I wish you would tell your father that I went 
to Chicago to work for his nomination. I was a Grant man 
and a third term man to the last ; and whatever occurred 
there was no compensation to me for my disappointment." 
He was doubtless sincere at the time; but he felt fully 
compensated afterward and quite forgot his disappointment, 
as probably any other human being would have done in his 
place. 

Arthur was in complete accord with Grant and Conkling 
in their dispute with Garfield, and even took a more conspic- 
uous part than Grant in the struggle, visiting Albany to aid 
in the re-election of Conkling and incurring the severest 
criticism of Garfield's supporters. The ex-President and the 
Vice-President did not meet very often in the months suc- 
ceeding Garfield's inauguration, but they held frequent cor- 
respondence, not indeed by letter but by the messages they 
exchanged through important or intimate friends. Their 
political relations at this juncture were closer than ever, and 
Grant felt a warmer regard and a higher admiration for his 
former subordinate after Arthur became Vice-President than 
he had before supposed he could entertain. 



336 GRANT IN PEACE. 

When the assassination of Garfield culminated in his 
death Grant met Arthur at the funeral; the whilom Custom 
House Collector was now the Head of the Nation, and pre- 
ceded the ex-President in the procession that followed Gar- 
field's remains. Almost immediately afterward they were 
traveling together by train on some occasion before Arthur 
had taken any step of importance in his new situation. 
Grant told me repeatedly that Arthur especially asked his 
advice and assistance in the composition of his Cabinet, and 
it was at Grant's suggestion that Frelinghuysen was selected 
as Secretary of State. General Grant also strongly urged 
Governor Morgan for Secretary of the Treasury, and that 
nomination was made. But Morgan declined the appoint- 
ment, and then Grant suggested the name of John Jacob 
Astor. I was at the General's house on the evening of 
October 25, 1S81, conversing about the situation after the 
family had gone to bed, and I mentioned the return of Mr. 
Astor, who had come over in the same ship with me from 
England a week or two before. Grant at once said that 
Astor would be an excellent man for the Treasury, especially 
in the crisis created by Morgan's refusal to serve. I urged 
him to present his views promptly, and that night he sent 
this dispatch to the President : 

"Astor has returned from Europe. Might not he accept 
temporarily ? " 

A clay or two afterward he told Mr. Astor of his action ; 
that gentleman was greatly surprised, and while expressing 
his gratification 'at General Grant's good opinion, declared 
that he had no desire to enter the Cabinet. The recommen- 
dation, however, was not taken, and Folger was eventually 
appointed Secretary of the Treasury, a selection which at 
the time was entirely acceptable to General Grant; although 
afterward Folger became so hostile as to order Grant's picture 
taken down from his room in the Treasury. Just here it 



GRANT AND ARTHUR. 337 

may not be amiss to say that General Grant also recom- 
mended Mr. Astor for the position of Minister to England, 
but Arthur prefered to retain Mr. Lowell, who had been one 
of his own most caustic critics and outspoken opponents. 

These suggestions were all made at the instance and invi- 
tation of the President, but after a while Arthur ceased to 
defer to General Grant or to desire his advice. The new ruler 
did not refuse to listen to his predecessor, but he seldom fol- 
lowed Grant's counsel after the first months of his Adminis- 
tration. It was not unnatural that the man who had become 
Chief Magistrate should think himself fully capable for all his 
duties, and prefer after a very short trial to carry out his own 
ideas and follow his own purposes. The change indeed was 
almost inevitable from the follower — suddenly elevated to so 
dizzy a height and at first willing to be counseled and guided 
by one whom he had so long looked up to as chief — to the 
actual potentate distributing offices and emoluments and 
honors, and able to grant favors or refuse them to the very 
man who had once benefited and promoted him. It was 
perhaps just as natural that the other should mark the change 
and feel it acutely, and should find a bearing more imperious 
than he thought necessary or appropriate in the new President 
toward the old. Their relations very soon became strained. 

Nevertheless Grant was invited to pay a visit at the Exe- 
cutive Mansion, and in the first winter of Arthur's Presidency 
he returned as a guest to the house from which he had once 
directed the affairs of the nation, and had issued the commis- 
sion of Collector to Chester A. Arthur, of New York. The 
circumstance could hardly have been without a disagreeable 
suggestion now, and Arthur had not the tact to disguise it. 
He maintained all the consequence that once had been 
Grant's but was now his own, and more than once his etiquette 
made the ex-President remember the change in their positions. 
Grant's situation was in different ways unpleasant at this 
time. He had several especial requests to make of the Presi- 



,-, 3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

dent in regard to Cabinet appointments, foreign missions, and 
other matters of importance, but besides this he was beset 
during all the period of his visit by office-hunters without 
either consequence or intimacy, who were anxious to engage 
what they supposed his influence with Arthur in their own 
behalf. Army officers, personal friends, old political adher- 
ents, needy relatives, all came to him. It was impossible to 
do a tithe of what they asked, but their importunities forced 
him to say more than he wished to Arthur. Doubtless this 
increased the delicacy of his relations with the President, till 
finally Arthur actually evaded the company of his guest ; and 
the visit terminated with a less degree of cordiality on either 
side than had existed at the beginning. 

The change in their feelings, however, was not purely per- 
sonal. It soon became evident that Mr. Arthur did not in- 
tend, as President, to hold the same relations he had once 
maintained, not only with Grant and Conkling, but with the 
wing of the party which they led. For this change the 
other side of course applauded him, but it was not to be sup- 
posed that the approbation could extend to those who thought 
themselves deserted. What was called impartiality by some 
seemed to others abandonment of principle ; and when Arthur, 
the third term advocate, called into his Cabinet William E. 
Chandler, the man who had clone most at Chicago to defeat 
the third term, the climax was reached. Grant's disappoint- 
ment at this selection was greater because he had recom- 
mended his personal friend, General Beale, for the place. 
But his recommendations by this time had ceased to carry 
any weight with the President. 

As early as February 16, 1882, Grant wrote to me: " To 
this time the President has seemed averse to making any re- 
movals, no matter how offensive the parties in place have 
been to him and his friends. I hope this will not continue." 
On the 23d of February, 1883, he wrote to me of the Presi- 
dent : "He seems more afraid of his enemies, and through 



GRANT AND ARTHUR. 



339 



this fear influenced by them, than guided either by his judg- 
ment, personal feelings, or friendly influences. I hope he 
will prove me wrong in this judgment." 

The months went on and the time for making Presidential 
nominations approached. On December 24, 1883, Grant 
wrote to me : " It is now understood that there is no 
concealment of Mr. Arthur's candidacy. At this time no 
other person turns up, so that unless there is a change within 
the next sixty days he will be renominated without much 
opposition. I feel, however, that he will not get the nomina- 
tion, although it is impossible to predict who may." On the 
30th of March, 1884, he said : " The President is now openly 
a candidate for the nomination in June next and knows well 
that I am opposed to it." In the same letter he said : 
" Judging from the past I doubt much whether any appoint- 
ments will be made until after the action of the Chicago 
Convention in June is made. There are now many vacancies 
existing, some of which have existed for a year and over, and 
among them very important offices for which no nominations 
have yet been sent to the Senate — offices such as judges of 
United States Courts for the States and Territories, United 
States Marshals, etc., which must cause great inconvenience 
to the public service and the States and Territories where 
these vacancies exist." 

On the 8th of April in the same year he wrote to me from 
Washington : " The Administration has seemed to me to be 
a sort of ad interim one, endeavoring to offend no one and to 
avoid positive action which would draw criticism. Probably 
the Administration has fewer enemies outspoken than any 
preceding it. It has fewer positive hearty friends than any 
' except Hayes's, probably. But Arthur will probably go into 
the Convention second in the number of supporters, when 
he would not probably have a single vote if it was not for his 
army of officials and the vacancies he has to fill." 

Arthur was not nominated, and I cannot recollect that 



340 



GRAXT IX PEACE. 



Grant ever met him again. They had, however, one other 
difference which increased the bitterness of Grant's feeling. 
In 1883, General Grant came to the conclusion that as Presi- 
dent, he had done Fitz John Porter a wrong in not allowing 
him a second trial ; he accordingly set himself to studying 
the papers, and after careful examination became convinced 
that Porter was innocent of the charge of which he had been 
convicted. He at once determined to do whatever he could 
to right the wrong he thought he had helped to inflict. His 
course provoked much opposition ; he risked the friendship 
of Logan and incurred the disapproval of many of his closest 
political and military associates ; but he persisted in what he 
had undertaken, and doubtless his efforts contributed largely 
to the reversal of Porter's sentence, which was finally accom- 
plished. Then the effort was made to restore Porter to the 
army, and a bill passed both houses of Congress, authorizing 
the President to replace him in his former rank. Grant took 
the liveliest interest in this effort, writing in its favor in the 
public press, and addressing the President himself on the 
subject, as well as members of the Cabinet. But Arthur 
vetoed the bill, on the ground that his dignity was infringed 
by the action of Congress in designating a person by name 
whom he was to appoint. Grant was extremely disappointed, 
and criticised both the action and the motives of the Presi- 
dent with acerbity. 

Soon after this followed Grant's financial misfortunes, 
and a bill was introduced in Congress to restore him to his 
former rank in the army ; but Mr. Arthur made it known 
that he should oppose the measure on the same grounds as 
those on which he had vetoed the bill restoring Fitz John 
Porter. General Grant was incensed at this action on the 
part of the President; he said that he had not been court- 
martialed, and his remarks upon the dignity that Arthur was 
so anxious to protect were not complimentary to the Chief 

;istrate. Nevertheless Arthur had no desire to prevent 



GRANT AND ARTHUR. 



341 



Grant's restoration to the army of which he had so long been 
the head ; he simply was more anxious to preserve his own 
consistency than to relieve the mortification or retrieve the 
misfortunes of the dying hero. 

After a long wrangle and a delay of months, Congress 
and the President came to terms, and a bill was passed which 
gave Arthur the right to name whom he chose for the posi- 
tion of retired General of the Army. This was signed by the 
President in the last hours of the expiring Congress, and the 
nomination of Grant was the closing act of Arthur's ofhcial 
existence ; but it came too late to relieve the anxieties of the 
suffering soldier, and it was so long deferred that the new 
commission of Grant was signed by Cleveland. 

Arthur and Cleveland both attended the funeral of their 
great predecessor ; and as in so many instances Grant had 
followed to the tomb those whom he had opposed in life, it 
was now his turn to be borne before the soldiers he had con- 
quered and the politicians whose principles he had contested 
or whose careers he had disapproved. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

GRANT AND BLAINE. 

GRANT'S relations with Blaine were always amicable, up 
to the time when the two became rivals for the Presi- 
dential nomination in 18S0. Blaine was Speaker of the 
House of Representatives when Gen. Grant was first elected 
President, and as one of the leaders of the Republican party, 
he proposed the passage of a bill authorizing Grant to take a 
leave of absence, as General of the Army, for the term of his 
Presidency. During both of Grant's Administrations Mr. 
Blaine gave him a loyal support ; he was in favor of Grant's 
renomination in 1872, and did not himself become an avowed 
aspirant for the succession until Grant had formally announced 
that his own name was not to be presented to the Convention 
in 1876. 

In that Convention Grant's influence was thrown for 
Conkling, but he had still no hostility for Blaine, and if Blaine 
had received the nomination, the Administration would un- 
doubtedly have done whatever it could, legitimately, for his 
election. It was Bristow whom Grant especially opposed, 
and he and Blaine were united in this opposition ; for 
Bristow's friends attacked Blaine as fiercely as they did 
Grant. While the Convention was in session, Mr. Blaine 
and Mr. Fish, Grant's Secretary of State — were seen driving 
together in an open carriage, in the streets of Washington, 
and Fish was too loyal to his chief to afford this indication of 
friendship to any man with whom the President under whom 
he served was at enmity. 

(342) 



GRANT AND BLAINE. 343 

I had personal knowledge of the early relations of the two 
great men, who were destined afterwards to be so bitterly 
opposed. In the first years of Grant's Presidency I was 
offered the position of Minister to Uruguay and Paraguay, 
but learning that a change was to be made at the Consulate- 
General in London, I asked the President for the latter 
appointment instead. He replied that he was pledged to 
nominate a friend of Mr. Blaine for the London Consulate, 
but added that I might consult the Speaker, and if he was 
willing, I should be sent to London. Accordingly, I went to 
Mr. Blaine, who was quite ready to oblige General Grant 
through me. His friend was sent to South America, and 
I was appointed Consul-General at London. Of course, the 
courtesy was intended for the President, although it gratified 
and benefited me. 

In 1877 I accompanied General Grant in his first visit to 
Switzerland, and at Geneva, a son of Mr. Blaine was often in 
his company, and always welcome in his apartments or at his 
table. The young man bore civil messages from his father to 
General Grant, which were cordially reciprocated in my 
hearing. It was not until the return of Grant to this country, 
in 1879, that there was any ill feeling between the predestined 
rivals. But the especial opposition to General Grant's candi- 
dacy for a third term came from the friends of Blaine ; and 
in the preliminary canvass all the ordinary resources of politi- 
cal warfare were called into play. Many things were said 
of General Grant that were disagreeable to him, and personal 
accusations were made against his character that touched 
him keenly ; perhaps he felt them more acutely after the. 
lavish compliments that had been offered him abroad, and 
the demonstrations that had followed him around the world. 
During the contest I did not perceive that he suffered from 
the sting of these assaults, and if he had succeeded, I doubt 
whether he would have remembered them ; but as the arrows 
came home, and he was, for the first time in his career, 



344 GRANT IN PEACE. 

flagrantly defeated, the wounds rankled for a long time. He 
always held Mr. Blaine responsible, not, indeed, avowedly for 
his discomfiture, but for the personal attacks to which he 
attributed it. I more than once asked him the cause of his 
especial bitterness toward Blaine, and he invariably gave this 
reason. Yet I thought at the time that he deceived himself, 
and that it was because Blaine had been the instrument and 
agent of his overthrow, that Grant maintained so persistent 
a resentment. I could not see that Blaine was more respon- 
sible for what his supporters said of Grant, than Grant was 
for many of the attacks his friends directed, without his 
knowledge, against Blaine. Still the sentiment was not un- 
natural. 

But here comes in a singular phase of his anger. Al- 
though Grant had been extremely disgusted at Blaine's intro- 
duction into the Cabinet, and though he certainly attributed 
the subsequent course of Garfield to the influence of Blaine, I 
never thought his soreness so great toward the Secretary 
of State as toward the President. He not only looked upon 
Garfield as responsible, but he felt that it was Garfield whom 
he had obliged, and who should have remembered the obliga- 
tion. Blaine was an avowed antagonist, and at liberty to fight 
with whatever weapons Fortune or his own ability had en- 
dowed him. Thus, though the action of Garfield's Adminis- 
tration undoubtedly increased Grant's hostility to Blaine, 
I never heard him speak of the Minister as bitterly as he did 
of the President. 

Grant's implacability, however, was in no way shared by 
Blaine. That statesman was very willing to come to terms 
with his great antagonist, and manifested this disposition 
frequently. But of course, it was easier for him to be mag- 
nanimous, for it was he who had succeeded. If not President, 
he was Secretary of State, and rightly or wrongly, he was 
credited with directing Garfield's policy. 

After 1SS0 there was no intercourse between Grant and 



GRANT AND BLAINE. ,45 

Blaine, until the time approached when another nomination 
for the Presidency was to be made, and then the friends 
of Blaine became extremely anxious for an accommodation. 
But Grant was still unwilling to be propitiated. He certainly 
preferred Blaine to Arthur, as a candidate, but he refused to 
take any step, or make any public utterance in Blaine's favor, 
in the months preceding the nomination. 

In October, 1883, he wrote to me as follows : 

" Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday. I write 
because of your allusion to hearing a rumor that Blaine and I had 
formed a combination politically. You may deny the statement 
most peremptorily. I have not seen Blaine to speak to him since 
a long time before the Convention of '80. We have had no com- 
munication in writing through other parties nor in any direct or 
indirect way. The Republican party cannot be saved, if it is to 
be saved at all, by tricks and combinations of politics. I read 
yesterday a circumstantial account of Blaine and I spending a 
week together recently, when without doubt we had fixed up 
matters for '84, Blaine to be President and I to be Senator from 
this State. The Republican party, to be saved, must have a deci- 
sive declared policy. It has now no observable policy except to 
peddle out patronage to sore-heads, in order to bring them back 
into the fold, and avoid any positive declarations upon all leading 
questions." 

This declaration was probably stronger because Grant 
knew that I was anxious for him to take ground in favor 
of Blaine. General Beale, who was an intimate friend, Sena- 
tor Chaffee, the father-in-law of one of Grant's sons, and 
Stephen B. Elkins, all desired the same result, but were un- 
able to bring it about at this time. In the late winter or early 
spring, after the accident which compelled him to make use of 
crutches for months, General Grant was in Washington, and 
Mr. Blaine called on him at the house of General Beale, where 
Grant was a visitor. The opponents of Mr. Blaine declared 
that the visit was not returned; but Grant authorized a 



346 GRANT IN PEACE. 

denial of the statement. He explained to me that he had left 
his cards himself at Mr. Blaine's house, but being a cripple, 
had not alighted from his carriage. He said, indeed, that he 
paid only one or two personal visits during his stay in Wash- 
ington, because of his infirmity. At the same time he told 
me that though he would not sanction any formal dinner 
made to bring himself and Mr. Blaine together, he certainly 
would not refuse to meet him socially. 

In fact time had undoubtedly somewhat mellowed or mod- 
ified his feeling, and as it became evident that the choice of 
the party had almost narrowed down to Blaine or Arthur, 
Grant admitted that he desired the success of Blaine as an 
alternative. After the nomination he often said to me that 
he had no doubt Mr. Blaine would make an excellent Presi- 
dent ; and on the first occasion when the candidate was in 
New York, General Grant called on him at his hotel. I was 
out of town at the time, and wrote to say how glad I was that 
he had taken this step, for his own sake as well as for the 
effect it might have upon the election ; for it seemed to me 
that one who had received so much from the Republican 
party was bound to sink his personal feeling and to do all in his 
power for its success. After I went to stay at his house, in 
the early autumn, I talked in this vein whenever I thought it 
advisable. He never disputed the suggestion, but said that 
he had thought it proper for him as ex-President to call on the 
nominee of his party for the place he had himself once held. 
I thought for awhile that he would make some more explicit 
declaration of his views, but there were influences persistently 
and incessantly at work to induce him to withhold his support 
from Blaine. No opportunity was omitted to revive bitter- 
ness or to recall the events which he had attributed to the 
hostility of Mr. Blaine, and though Chaffee, Elkins, Beale, 
and others did their best, the counter current was too strong. 
I very much hoped that at the last he would cast his vote for 
Blaine, but the wily enemies of Republicanism were awake 



GRANT AND BLAINE. *,- 

at the critical moment, and General Grant did not vote for 
the Republican candidate. 

During the winter Mr. Elkins ascertained that Grant 
would not refuse to accept a copy of the first volume of 
Blaine's history, and accordingly one was presented to him, 
with an autograph inscription from the author ; and Grant 
acknowledged the compliment in a note of more than his 
ordinary suavity. I read to him the few pages in which there 
was occasion for the political writer to discuss General Grant's 
military career. They were acceptable to their subject, but 
the account of Grant's civil administration did not appear 
until he who was judged was beyond the influence of criti- 
cism. Blaine, however, had been a faithful supporter of 
Grant's Presidential policy, and his comments over the tomb 
of his great rival contained nothing at which that rival could 
himself have caviled. General Grant left a list of the names 
of those to whom he wished his own memoirs presented, and 
Mr. Blaine's name was among them. 

The exchange of courtesies upon the presentation of 
Blaine's book took place only a few months before the death 
of the soldier, and was the concluding incident in the inter- 
course of Grant and Blaine. In those last hours, when the 
hero declared, as he did to me on Easter Sunday, 1885, "I 
would rather have the good-will of even those whom I have 
not hitherto accounted friends " ; when he forgave Rosecrans 
and Jefferson Davis — he did not include Blaine among his 
enemies. 



CHAPTER XL. 

GRANT AND MEXICO. 

GRANT always took a peculiar interest in the Republic 
of Mexico. His experiences during the Mexican War 
left a lively impression with him, and there was no portion of 
his " Memoirs " in which he manifested a keener interest 
than in the pages describing, not only the campaigns in 
which he participated and the adventures that befell himself, 
but the peculiarities of the country, the climate, and the 
inhabitants of Mexico. I remember well the composition of 
these chapters, and how impressed I was with the clearness of 
his memory and the vividness of his youthful perceptions, 
recalled after so long an interval. At the close of the Rebel- 
lion all this interest was intensified ; for the conversion of 
Mexico into an empire seemed to Grant a sequence, or rather 
an incident, of secession, and his concern did not abate until 
the expulsion of the French and the re-establishment of the 
republic. 

Upon Grant's assumption of the duties of President, 
Rawlins at first exercised great influence with him, and all 
that influence was in favor of an extension of territory. St. 
Domingo, Cuba, and the northern portion of Mexico — all — 
Rawlins would have been glad to incorporate into the Union. 
It was with a view to the acquisition of a large slice of 
territory on the northern frontier of Mexico that the mission 
to that country was offered in 1869 to General Sickles. The 
acquisition was intended to be peaceful, by purchase, and 
with the entire consent of the neighboring state, for Grant 

(34§) 



GRANT AND MEXICO. ^AQ 

would have been the last man to unfairly appropriate the 
domains of the friendly republic; he had disapproved the 
forcible extension of territory in the days of the annexation 
of Texas, and his relations with the statesmen of Mexico were 
loyal, his regard for the interests and honor of that country, 
genuine. But after due deliberation it was deemed unad- 
visable to attempt at that time the absorption of Mexican 
territory. The Administration concluded that there were 
other and more pressing matters to be decided then; the 
Reconstruction of the Union itself and the pacification of 
the South were still incomplete ; there was the condition of 
the emancipated race to adjust; and to introduce other and 
foreign elements into the population at this crisis would pro- 
pose new problems and provoke additional and inopportune 
difficulties. So the Mexican question, as it was presented to 
Grant in the early days of his Presidency, was allowed to 
drop, and was not revived in the same form during his career. 
On his return from his European tour Grant revisited 
Mexico, and it was at this time that ideas of business rela- 
tions with the sister Republic were first broached to him. 
Everything, however, was in abeyance until the result of the 
Chicago Convention of 1880 was known. Immediately after 
his defeat, Grant visited Colorado, and from Manitou Springs 
he wrote to me : 

" I think now I will be in New York City soon after my return 
to Galena. The probabilities are that I shall make my home 
there. But this is not entirely certain. I am obliged to do some- 
thing to supplement my means to live upon, and I have very 
favorable opportunities there. Fortunately, none of my children 
are a tax upon me. If they were, we would all have to retire to 
the farm and work that. 

" I have been looking at the mines in New Mexico and in this 
State, and flatter myself that I have obtained something of an 
insight into the resources of the two — the State and Territory — 
and a large insight in the way mines are managed. Without going 



35o 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



into details, I would not buy stock in any mine in the country 
where the stock is thrown upon the market, any more than I would 
buy lottery tickets. The mines are producing largely, but those 
quoted pay no dividends to the stockholders, unless it is to put up 
the price of the stocks, so the knowing ones can sell out. Porter 
& Co. have a magnificent mine, managed by a thoroughly compe- 
tent and honest man. It is so opened that they will get out all 
there is in it in the most economical manner, and the dividends 
will be regular, subject to no vicissitudes except strikes, epidemics, 
or earthquakes. I go on Saturday to the Garrison and from there 
to the San Juan region. That visit over, I will have seen a large 
part of the mining region." 

On the 1 2th of August he wrote me again : 

" I have been away from here for ten days visiting parts of 
Colorado I had never seen before. The trip was a very hard one, 
though full of interest. I am satisfied this State has a great 
destiny before it. The new region that I visited will show greater 
mineral resources than all that has been heretofore discovered in 
the State, besides considerable agricultural resources. But I will 
see you in September, when I shall be in New York ; and then I 
can tell you more than I can write. When I go to New York it 
will be determined whether I accept the Presidency of the mining 
company to which I have been elected. One thing is certain ; I 
must do something to supplement my income, or continue to live 
in Galena or on a farm. I have not got the means to live in a 
city. With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant, Fred, and Buck (the 
latter has just left), I am, as ever, yours truly, U. S. Grant." 

During this winter, however, Grant turned his attention 
almost exclusively to Mexican affairs. He soon became 
president of a railway company whose road ran south from 
the City of Mexico, and he was also actively engaged in 
furthering the enterprise of connecting the two republics by 
railroad. In 1S81 he went again to Mexico, and from there, 
on the 7th of May, he wrote to me : " My business here pro- 
gresses favorably so far as the President and departments are 



GRANT AND MEXICO. 35 I 

concerned. I have heard nothing yet of any opposition in 
[the Mexican] Congress. Before this reaches you I will be 
on my way home." 

I find a few passages in his letters after this that illus- 
trate his character, and show in what matters he was 
occupied. On the nth of March he wrote : 

" Dear Badeau, — The story about my failure was all pure 
fiction, invented with many lies in the stockboard to depress 
stocks. I have nothing to do with these speculators, and I think 
it great presumption to use my name in any way to effect their 
purposes. Very truly yours." 

On the 2 1st of July, 1882, he said to me : 

" I shall take no notice of Shepherd for the present. He 
stated truthfully in a published interview that I had no interest in 
the Peruvian Company, and never had. I do not recognize the 
right of reporters and sensational writers to call upon me for an 
explanation whenever my name is mentioned." 

In 1882 Grant was appointed, entirely without his own 
solicitation or expectation, head of a commission to negotiate a 
commercial treaty with Mexico. This was doubtless at the 
instance of Secretary Frelinghuysen, who retained his per- 
sonal and friendly relations with Grant after the ex-President 
had altogether broken with Arthur. At the very time 
when Grant's most urgent applications and recommendations 
in behalf of political adherents or personal friends were 
rejected or ignored, his own nomination was sent to the 
Senate. This was a very adroit move on the part of the 
Government, for Grant was known to take a keen interest in 
our commercial relations with Mexico, and he could hardly 
refuse the appointment, although to accept it would give the 
appearance of a friendly feeling for the Administration which 
he was far from entertaining. He saw the design, but the 
great public interest was paramount with him to any personal 



352 GRANT IN TEACE. 

feeling. He delayed some little while, but finally accepted 
the appointment. This, of course, brought him into closer 
relations with the State Department, but those relations did 
not extend to the Head of the Government. 

The commissioners negotiated a treaty to which he refers 
in the following letter of February 4, 1S83. In the winter of 
1882 I had gone to Cuba as Consul-General, and soon after my 
arrival the English Vice-Consul at Havana was transferred to 
the City of Mexico. The English had maintained no diplo- 
matic or consular representation in Mexico for nearly twenty 
years — not since the tripartite invasion of 1862, and I heard 
in Havana that this embassy, if such it could be called, was an 
attempt to forestall General Grant's treaty, and prevent the 
United States from obtaining advantages which the English 
hoped to secure for themselves. I wrote this to General 
Grant, and he replied : 

" I had heard before that the English had sent their Vice- 
Consul to Cuba to Mexico, ostensibly to renew intercourse with 
that government, but more particularly to co-operate with the 
Germans and French to defeat a commercial treaty with the 
United States. I sent your letter, with one from myself, to the 
Secretary of State. You should by all means write to the 
Secretary of State, saying to him substantially what you say to me 
in your letter of the 3d of January. Of course I cannot send that 
letter. We were successful in negotiating a commercial treaty, 
which is practically ratified so far as the Mexican Government is 
concerned. We will see what our Senate will do with it if the 
President sends it in. It was delivered to the Secretary of State 
two weeks ago, with report, but so far it has not seen the light." 

Again, on the 28th of February, 1883, he wrote me a let- 
ter which sufficiently explains the purport of mine, to which 
it was a reply: 

" I was much pleased to receive your letter of the 22d inst. I 
was tempted to give what you say about the use of Mexican 
tobacco, its use in Cuba, the feeling of Cubans in regard to the 



GRANT AND MEXICO. or, 

effect of the treaty, etc., to the press. Of course, I should only 
have given it as from a friend of mine, writing from Havana. 
But, on reflection, I concluded that the public would know who 
my friend in Cuba was, so concluded not to. I wish, however, 
you would write the same thing to the State Department. . . . 
You will learn by the mail that carries this that consideration of 
the treaty has been deferred until December next. This, I fear, 
will defeat the treaty in Mexico, where there will be untiring efforts 
by foreign merchants and diplomats to prejudice the Government 
against it. . . . Mrs. Grant tells me to say that she is just 
reading your history, and thinks more of you than ever. She is 
now in the second volume." 

The treaty was not confirmed. In one of General Grant's 
letters during this period he wrote : 

" I never would have undertaken the work I am now engaged 
in for any possible gain that could accrue to myself. But I have 
been much impressed with the resources of this country [Mexico], 
and have entertained a much higher opinion of these people than 
the world at large generally does, and of their capacity to develop 
their resources, with aid and encouragement from outside. I felt 
that the development must come soon, and the country furnishing 
the means would receive the greatest benefit from the increased 
commerce. I wanted it to be ours. Besides, we want to encour- 
age republican government, and particularly on this continent. 
Then, too, it is an advantage for us to pay for our imports with 
the products of our soil and manufactures as far as possible. This 
we do not now with countries from which we receive tropical and 
semi-tropical products. Mexico can furnish all these commodi- 
ties, and will want in return what we have to sell." 

This is an epitome of Grant's Mexican policy, and seems 
to me full of far-reaching political wisdom and large patriotic 
views. It shows, too, how his mind took in the widest pur- 
poses and most various aims ; for this same letter contains 
comments on the Administration of Garfield that indicate 
how keenly Grant resented the conduct of the Government 
23 



354 GRANT IN TEACE. 

of that day toward himself and his political friends. But just 
as he turned, in the moment of defeat at Chicago, to the con- 
sideration of the resources of the country at the West, so, 
while suffering what he considered slights and rebuffs at the 
hands of his successor, he was devising a great international 
scheme to exchange benefits and productions with the neigh- 
boring republic ; and later, at the very moment when another 
Administration refused his applications, he nevertheless ac- 
cepted an appointment under it, for the sake of advancing 
the same enterprise. 

To my mind there is a greater magnanimity in his course 
because it was so difficult. He deserves infinitely greater 
plaudits because he felt keenly and stifled his feelings than 
if he had been a block, and insensible or indifferent to emo- 
tions or circumstances. Grant was full of emotion when his 
own interests, or passions, or pride was concerned. His 
appetites were fierce, his temptations strong. If he rose 
superior to them, he merits and will receive a higher meed of 
praise. His nature was not stolid although it was restrained, 
nor unimpassioned because undemonstrative. He was no 
marble statue, that could feel neither heat nor cold, but a 
live man, human to the core. If you tickled him, he would 
laugh ; if you pricked him he would bleed. For such a man 
to subdue his emotions, to conquer his appetites, to master 
his passions, and perform the work that he achieved for his 
country and his time was as much grander than the dull per- 
formances of those who are not tempted as humanity is 
greater than mechanism, or flesh and blood than wood or 
stone. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 

THE account of Lincoln's love-making, in his history by 
Nicolay and Hay, seems almost ominous when read by 
the light of later knowledge. The anxieties and forebodings 
and absolute agony of the future President on the eve of 
marriage — the most incredulous might say — presaged the 
destiny that impended. For no one knows the character of 
Abraham Lincoln, his godlike patience, his ineffable sweet- 
ness, his transcendent charity amid all the tremendous wor- 
ries of war and revolution and public affairs, who is ignorant 
of what he endured of private woe; and no one rightly judges 
the unfortunate partner of his elevation and unwitting cause 
of many of his miseries, who forgets that she had "eaten on 
the insane root that takes the reason prisoner." 

The country knows something of the strangeness of Mrs. 
Lincoln's conduct after her husband's death; but many of 
the most extraordinary incidents in her career were not 
revealed at the time, out of delicacy to others and tenderness 
to one who had been the sharer of Abraham Lincoln's for- 
tunes and the mother of his family. Enough, however, was 
apparent to shock and pain the public sense, when finally the 
conflict with her own son, so highly respected, the dragging 
of their affairs into a public court, the necessary supervision 
of the poor lady's finances, the restraint of her actions, if not 
of her person, disclosed the fact that her mind had been dis- 
eased. This threw a light on circumstances until then inex- 
plicable. It relieved Mrs. Lincoln herself from the charge of 

(355) 



,:-6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

heartlessness, or mercenary behavior, or indifference to her 
husband's happiness. It approved the action of the son, 
which, in some quarters, had been gravely misunderstood; 
and, above all, it showed the suffering Abraham Lincoln 
must have endured all through those years in which he bore 
the burden of a struggling nation upon his shoulders, whether 
he knew or only feared the truth, or whether he went on 
calmly in the sad thought that his worst forebodings before 
the marriage were fulfilled. 

The first time that I saw Mrs. Lincoln was when I accom- 
panied Mrs. Grant to the White House, for her first visit 
there as wife of the General-in-Chief. The next occasion that 
I recall was in March, 1864, when Mrs. Lincoln, with the 
President, visited City Point. They went on a steamer, 
escorted by a naval vessel of which Captain John S. Barnes 
was in command, and remained for several weeks in the James 
River under the bluff on which the headquarters were estab- 
lished. They slept and usually took their meals aboard, but 
sometimes both ascended the hill and were entertained at the 
mess of General Grant. 

On the 26th of March a distinguished party from Wash- 
ington joined them, among whom I remember, especially, Mr. 
Geoffroi, the French Minister. It was proposed that an 
excursion should be rtade to the front of the Army of the 
Potomac, about ten or twelve miles off, and Mrs. Lincoln and 
Mrs. Grant were of the company. A military railroad took 
the illustrious guests a portion of the way, and then the men 
were mounted, but Mrs. Grant anil Mrs. Lincoln went on in 
an ambulance, as it was called — a sort of half-open carriage 
with two seats besides that for the driver. I was detailed to 
escort them, and of course sat on the front seat facing the 
ladies, with my back to the horses. 

In the course of conversation, I chanced to mention that 
all the wives of officers at the army front had been ordered to 
the rear — a sure sign that active operations were in contem- 



THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 357 

plation. I said not a lady had been allowed to remain, except 
Mrs. Griffin, the wife of General Charles Griffin, who had 
obtained a special permit from the President. At this Mrs. 
Lincoln was up in arms, " What do you mean by that, sir ? " 
she exclaimed. " Do you mean to say that she saw the 
President alone ? Do you know that I never allow the Presi- 
dent to see any woman alone ? " She was absolutely jealous 
of poor, ugly Abraham Lincoln. 

I tried to pacify her and to palliate my remark, but she 
was fairly boiling over with rage. " That's a very equivocal 
smile, sir," she exclaimed: "Let me out of this carriage at 
once. I will ask the President if he saw that woman alone." 
Mrs. Griffin, afterward the Countess Esterhazy, was one of 
the best known and most elegant women in Washington, a 
Carroll, and a personal acquaintance of Mrs. Grant, who 
strove to mollify the excited spouse, but all in vain. Mrs. 
Lincoln again bade me stop the driver, and when I hesitated 
to obey, she thrust her arms past me to the front of the 
carriage and held the driver fast. But Mrs. Grant finally pre- 
vailed upon her to wait till the whole party alighted, and then 
General Meade came up to pay his respects to the wife of the 
President. I had intended to offer Mrs. Lincoln my arm, and 
endeavor to prevent a scene, but Meade, of course, as my 
superior, had the right to escort her, and I had no chance to 
warn him. I saw them go off together, and remained in fear 
and trembling for wlaat might occur in the presence of the 
foreign minister and other important strangers. But General 
Meade was very adroit, and when they returned Mrs. Lincoln 
looked at me significantly and said: "General Meade is a 
gentleman, sir. He says it was not the President who gave 
Mrs. Griffin the permit, but the Secretary of War." Meade 
was the son of a diplomatist, and had evidently inherited some 
of his father's skill. 

At night, when we were back in camp, Mrs. Grant talked 
over the matter with me, and said the whole affair was so dis- 



3$g GRANT IN PEACE. 

tressing and mortifying that neither of us must ever mention 
it ; at least, I was to be absolutely silent, and she would dis- 
close it only to the General. But the next day I was released 
from my pledge, for " worse remained behind." 

The same party went in the morning to visit the Army of 
the James on the north side of the river, commanded by Gen- 
eral Orel. The arrangements were somewhat similar to those 
of the day before. We went up the river in a steamer, and 
then the men again took horses and Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. 
Grant proceeded in an ambulance. I was detailed as before 
to act as escort, but I asked for a companion in the duty ; for 
after my experience, I did not wish to be the only officer in 
the carriage. So Colonel Horace Porter was ordered to join 
the party. Mrs. Ord accompanied her husband ; as she was 
the wife of the commander of an army she was not subject 
to the order for return ; though before that day was over she 
wished herself in Washington or anywhere else away from 
the army, I am sure. She was mounted, and as the ambu- 
lance was full, she remained on her horse and rode for a 
while by the side of the President, and thus preceded Mrs. 
Lincoln. 

As soon as Mrs. Lincoln discovered this her rage was 
beyond all bounds. "What does the woman mean," she 
exclaimed, "by riding by the side of the President? and 
ahead of me? Does she suppose that he wants her by the 
side of him?" She was in a frenzy of excitement, and 
language and action both became more extravagant every 
moment. Mrs. Grant again endeavored to pacify her, but 
then Mrs. Lincoln got angry with Mrs. Grant; and all that 
Porter and I could do was to see that nothing worse than 
words occurred. We feared she might jump out of the 
vehicle and shout to the cavalcade. Once she said to Mrs. 
Grant in her transports: "I suppose you thiiik you'll get to 
the White House yourself, don't you?" Mrs. Grant was 
very calm and dignified, and merely replied that she was quite 



THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 350 

satisfied with her present position; it was far greater than 
she had ever expected to attain. But Mrs. Lincoln exclaimed ; 
" Oh ! you had better take it if you can get it. 'Tis very 
nice." Then she reverted to Mrs. Ord, while Mrs. Grant 
defended her friend at the risk of arousing greater vehemence. 

When there was a halt Major Seward, a nephew of the 
Secretary of State, and an officer of General Orel's staff, rode 
up, and tried to say something jocular. "The President's 
horse is very gallant, Mrs. Lincoln," he remarked ; " he insists 
on riding by the side of Mrs. Orel." This of course added 
fuel to the flame. "What do you mean by that, sir?" she 
cried. Seward discovered that he had made a huge mistake, 
and his horse at once developed a peculiarity that compelled 
him to ride behind, to get out of the way of the storm. 

Finally the party arrived at its destination and Mrs. Ord 
came up to the ambulance. Then Mrs. Lincoln positively 
insulted her, called her vile names in the presence of a crowd 
of officers, and asked what she meant by following up the 
President. The poor woman burst into tears and inquired 
what she had done, but Mrs. Lincoln refused to be appeased, 
and stormed till she was tired. Mrs. Grant still tried to 
stand by her friend, and everybody was shocked and horrified. 
But all things come to an end, and after a while we returned 
to City Point. 

That night the President and Mrs. Lincoln entertained 
General and Mrs. Grant and the General's staff at dinner on 
the steamer, and before us all Mrs. Lincoln berated General Ord 
to the President, and urged that he should be removed. He 
was unfit for his place, she said, to say nothing of his wife. 
General Grant sat next and defended his officer bravely. Of 
course General Ord was not removed. 

During all this visit similar scenes were occurring. Mrs. 
Lincoln repeatedly attacked her husband in the presence of 
officers because of Mrs. Griffin and Mrs. Ord, and I never 
suffered greater humiliation and pain on account of one not a 



360 GRANT IN PEACE. 

near personal friend than when I saw the Head of the State, 
the man who carried all the cares of the nation at such a 
crisis — subjected to this inexpressible public mortification. 
He bore it as Christ might have done; with an expression of 
pain and sadness that cut one to the heart, but with supreme 
calmness and dignity. He called her "mother," with his 
old-time plainness ; he pleaded with eyes and tones, and 
endeavored to explain or palliate the offenses of others, till 
she turned on him like a tigress ; and then he walked away, 
hiding that noble, ugly face that we might not catch the full 
expression of its misery. 

General Sherman was a witness of some of these episodes 
and mentioned them in his memoirs many years ago. Cap- 
tain Barnes, of the navy, was a witness and a sufferer too. 
Barnes had accompanied Mrs. Ord on her unfortunate ride 
and refused afterward to say that the lady was to blame. 
Mrs. Lincoln never forgave him. A day or two afterward he 
went to speak to the President on some official matter when 
Mrs. Lincoln and several others were present. The Presi- 
dent's wife said something to him unusually offensive that all 
the company could hear. Lincoln was silent, but after a 
moment he went up to the young officer, and taking him 
by the arm led him into his own cabin, to show him a map or 
a paper, he said. He made no remark, Barnes told me, upon 
what had occurred. He could not rebuke his wife ; but he 
showed his regret, and his regard for the officer, with a touch 
of what seemed to me the most exquisite breeding imaginable. 

Shortly before these occurrences Mrs. Stanton had visited 
City Point, and I chanced to ask her some question about the 
I' sident's wife. "I do not visit Mrs. Lincoln," was the 
reply. But I thought I must have been mistaken; the wife 
of the Secretary of War must visit the wife of the President ; 
and I renewed my inquiry. "Understand me, sir?" she 
repeated ; " I do not go to the White House ; I do not visit 
Mrs. Lincoln." I was not at all intimate with Mrs. Stanton, 



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3 52 GRANT IN PEACE. 

and this remark was so extraordinary that I never forgot it ; 
but I understood it afterward. 

Mrs. Lincoln continued her conduct toward Mrs. Grant, 
who strove to placate her, and then Mrs. Lincoln became 
more outrageous still. She once rebuked Mrs. Grant for 
sitting in her presence. "How dare you be seated," she 
said, "until I invite you." Altogether it was a hateful 
experience at that tremendous crisis in the nation's history, 
for all this was just before the army started on its last 
campaign. 

But the war ended and the President and Mrs. Lincoln 
had already returned to Washington when General Grant 
arrived from Appomattox, bringing Mrs. Grant with him. 
On the 13th of April, Washington was illuminated in honor 
of the victories, and Mrs. Lincoln invited General Grant 
to drive about the streets with her and look at the demonstra- 
tion ; but she did not ask Mrs. Grant. The next night, 
April 14th, was the saddest in American history. Not only 
General and Mrs. Grant, but the Secretary of War and 
Mrs. Stanton, were invited to accompany the President and 
his wife to the theatre. No answer had yet been sent when 
Mrs. Stanton called on Mrs. Grant to inquire if she meant to 
be of the party. " For," said Mrs. Stanton, " unless you 
accept the invitation, I shall refuse. I will not sit without 
you in the box with Mrs. Lincoln." Mrs. Grant also was 
tired out with what she had endured, and decided not to go to 
the play, little dreaming of the terrible experience she was 
thus escaping. She determined to return that night to 
Burlington, in New Jersey, where her children were at school, 
and requested the General to accompany her. Accordingly a 
note of apology was sent to Mrs. Lincoln, and Mrs. Stanton 
also declined the invitation. These ladies thus may both have 
saved their husband's lives. 

After the murder of the President, the eccentricities of 
Mrs. Lincoln became more apparent than ever, and people 



THE GRANTS AND THE LINCOLNS. 363 

began to wonder whether her mind had not been affected by 
her terrible misfortune. Mr. Seward told me that she sold 
the President's shirts with his initials marked on them, before 
she left the White House ; and learning that the linen was 
for sale at a shop in Pennsylvania Avenue, he sent and 
bought it privately. She lingered at the Executive Mansion 
a long while after all arrangements should have been made 
for her departure, keeping the new President out of his 
proper residence. Afterward she made appeals to public 
men and to the country for pensions and other pecuniary aid, 
though there was no need for public application. She went 
abroad doing strange things and carrying the honored name 
of Abraham Lincoln into strange and sometimes unfit com- 
pany, for she was greatly neglected, and felt the neglect. 
While I was Consul-General at London, I learned of her 
living in an obscure quarter, and went to visit her. She was 
touched by the attention, and when I invited her to my house, 
for it seemed wrong that the widow of the man who had done 
so much for us all, should be ignored by any American 
representative, she wrote me a note of thanks, betraying 
how rare such courtesies had become to her then. 

The next I heard of the poor woman was the scandal 
of the courts in Chicago, when the fact was made clear that 
she was insane. It was a great relief to many to learn it, and 
doubtless the disclosure of the secret which her son must 
have long suspected — though like the Spartan boy, he 
cloaked his pain 7— was to him a sort of terrible satisfaction. 
It vindicated his conduct ; it told for him what he had con- 
cealed ; it proved him a worthy son of that great father who 
also bore his fate so heroically. 

The revelation not only showed these two as noble suffer- 
ers, but redeemed the unfortunate woman herself from the 
odium for which she was not responsible. The world had 
known that she seemed to defy and malign her son, that she 
had appeared to do things unworthy of the wife or widow of 



364 GRANT IX PEACE. 

the great martyr of our history, and even seemed to blot the 
nation's fame ; but the pitiful story of Miramar casts no 
reflection on Maximilian's Empress, and the shadow of 
insanity thrown across the intelligence of Mrs. Lincoln, 
relieves her from reproach or blame. Instead of a mocking 
figure, disgracing her name and station and country, she too 
becomes an object of commiseration, not knowing the purport 
of her own words or the result of her own deeds, or perhaps 
vainly struggling to restrain them both, and regretting in her 
saner intervals the very acts she was at other times unable to 
control. And Lincoln — who that reveres and loves his 
memory will not respect his character more profoundly, and 
feel that he has another and a tenderer claim upon our sympa- 
thy and honor, since we know that even this cup did not pass 
from him. Amid the storms of party hate and rebellious 
strife, amid agonies — not irreverently be it said, like those 
of the Cross — for he also suffered for us — the hyssop of 
domestic misery was pressed to his lips, and he too said: 
" Father, forgive : they know not what they do." 



CHAPTER XLII. 

GRANT AND LOGAN. 

THE relations of Grant and Logan began almost with the 
war. Grant tells in his " Memoirs" of his anxiety about 
Logan's position in the early days of the great struggle. The 
future General-in-Chief was commanding a regiment which 
had yet not marched to the front, when he was approached 
by important people who wished him to allow Logan and 
McClernand to address his troops. As both these orators had 
been prominent Democrats, Grant hesitated at first to give 
the permission ; but he found Logan's speech full of fiery 
patriotism, and Logan's action at this crisis, Grant often 
declared, had prodigious influence with the people of the 
southern portion of Illinois. His personal popularity un- 
doubtedly contributed to keep " Egypt," as the region is 
called, loyal to the Union. The occasion of Logan's speech 
was the first meeting between these two men, destined after- 
ward to be so closely associated in politics as well as war. 

When I first went to Grant the praises of Logan were 
constantly on his lips. I had never met the great volunteer 
general at the time, and Grant never tired of telling me his 
history. So, too, when I wrote a volume on Grant's early 
campaigns, I got all my information in regard to Logan, first- 
hand from Grant. He traced for me Logan's entire career, by 
his own side at Belmont, Donelson, Corinth, and in the Vicks- 
burg campaign; and always said that Logan and Crocker 
were the two best generals from civil life that the war 
produced. 

(36S) 



366 GRANT IN PEACE. 

On the death of McPherson, Sherman nominated Howard, 
the junior of Logan, to the command of the Army of the 
Tennessee, which Logan was holding temporarily. Grant did 
not agree with Sherman's estimate of the relative ability of 
Logan and Howard, but he refused to interfere with Sher- 
man's choice. Logan was bitterly disappointed, yet he re- 
mained and served with unflinching zeal under the man who 
had been his junior, though Hooker at the same time, and for 
the same cause, requested to be relieved. 

This was not the only instance of magnanimity in Logan's 
career. In December, 1864, when Grant became impatient 
at what he thought the needless delay of Thomas at Nash- 
ville, Logan was directed to take command of the Army of 
the Cumberland, and started to obey the order. This was the 
greatest promotion he had yet received and offered that 
opportunity for separate distinction which every soldier covets ; 
but when he arrived at Louisville, on his way from City Point, 
he received the news of Thomas's great victory, and instantly 
telegraphed to Grant, proposing that he should now himself 
return to his subordinate command. Such greatness of soul 
always recommended itself to Grant. 

But Logan was also capable of intense bitterness, and on 
one or two occasions his course was very different from what 
Grant could either indorse or admire. In General Sherman's 
" Memoirs " he described Logan and Blair as political gen- 
erals, and assigned that as the reason why he had nomi- 
nated neither to command the Army of the Tennessee. 
His language was unfortunate and gave great offense to 
both those officers. I have no doubt that Sherman himself 
afterward regretted its use; but once uttered, the mischief 
could not be undone. Logan was as firm in his enmities 
as his friendships, and he never forgave Sherman this slur 
upon his military reputation. In the course of time he be- 
came a member of the Senate, and in all military matters 
his influence was almost controlling. It was his voice 



GRANT AND LOGAN. 3 5 7 

which decided that Sherman should be retired from the com- 
mand of the army at the age of sixty-four, though Sherman's 
friends, and many, or rather all, who were simply grateful for 
his transcendent services, strove earnestly for his retention. 
But Logan prevailed. It was a bitter revenge to set aside so 
eminent a man, his old commander, in the prime of his 
powers, and in the face of the world, as punishment for a few 
hasty words of ill-judged criticism. I talked with Grant 
more than once on this subject ; he differed entirely with 
Logan, and although he considered Sherman's language injudi- 
cious, he was still more earnest in condemning Logan's course. 

So, too, Logan was unrelenting in his pursuit of Fitz 
John Porter. He came nearer quarreling with Grant on this 
point than at any other stage of their long intimacy. I hap- 
pened to be in Washington a day or two after Grant's first 
letter in behalf of Porter was made public, and Logan spoke 
to me very bitterly on the subject ; more harshly indeed than 
I ever cared to repeat to Grant, though doubtless what was 
said was meant for repetition. But I did not wish to be the 
means of creating a rupture, and merely told Grant that Logan 
felt very sore. Each maintained what he thought the proper 
course, and after a while Logan's asperity, at least towards 
Grant, was softened, though he never ceased to condemn 
Grant's action. But their relations were hardly interrupted, 
and finally became as warm again as ever. On Grant's side 
there had never, indeed, been any coolness, nor perhaps is 
coolness the word for Logan's feeling; it was heat; heat 
towards Porter, that boiled over even on Grant. There was 
also a time while Grant was President, when a difference arose 
between them that threatened to provoke antagonism, but 
this was no difference of principle, it was personal purely; 
and when the occasion passed, the temper of each was ap- 
peased, and they became better friends than ever. 

Grant, indeed, was very grateful to Logan for his political 
as well as military services. In the final effort for a " third 



368 GRANT IN PEACE. 

term," Logan's action was as important and as steadfast as 
that of any other man; and Grant never forgot those who 
stuck by him in this critical emergency. 

When he wrote his "Memoirs," he took unusual pains to 
say what he thought would gratify Logan ; he enlarged the 
passages that described Logan's excellences, and was de- 
termined to paint him in the liveliest colors. Mis heart was 
in the tribute that he paid his friend, and all the more because 
of the shade of difference that had passed across their life- 
time intimacy. Logan in return was loyal to Grant when 
business misfortune and calumny came. Grant would have 
preferred Logan to succeed Hayes, to any other man ; and in 
the last months of his life he often spoke of Logan, always 
with warmth and admiration and affection. 

Logan, like Grant, attempted to write his "Memoirs," 
and he, like Grant, was mortified at his political failures; he 
too was tortured by financial troubles ; and he too was cut off 
before he reached old age. He did not stay long behind after 
Grant had departed. He had followed his chief in his cam- 
paigns of conquest, in his political life, in his literary attempts, 
and kept step with him at last in that great march from which 
there is no return. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

GRANT AND HANCOCK. 

HANCOCK and Grant were at West Point together. 
They were good friends there, and Hancock used to 
call his future chief by the familiar nick-name of " Sam 
Grant." Long afterward, during the Wilderness campaign 
— it was the day after the great attack at Spottsylvania, when 
Hancock reported : " I have finished up Johnson and am now 
going into Early " — Grant nominated Hancock for brigadier- 
general in the regular Army. Hancock remembered the old 
relationship of the cadet time, and said to the brother-in-law 
of the General-in-Chief, who told him the news : " I love Sam 
Grant." 

The regard was mutual. At one moment in the battle of 
the Wilderness things looked very dark ; Warren had been 
driven back at the center, and a rush of stragglers came hur» 
rying in towards Grant's headquarters with the news that 
Hancock was routed. Grant was seated on the ground whit- 
tling a stick ; he simply turned the stick around and whittled 
the other end ; and when it was again reported that Hancock 
had been driven, he said grimly, " I don't believe it." In a few 
moments word came directly contrary to the earlier rumor. 
Instead of retreating, Hancock had pushed the enemy. Then 
Grant looked up and said with as much enthusiasm as I ever 
knew him betray : " Hancock's a glorious soldier." 

He never changed this opinion. Hancock was always 
given the advance, or the exposed position. He bore the 
brunt of the battle of the Wilderness ; he made three terrible 

24 ( 369 ) 



370 GRANT IN PEACE. 

assaults at Spottsylvania ; he led the march to the North 
Anna ; he was in the thickest at Cold Harbor. His troops 
were the first of the Army of the Potomac to come up before 
Petersburg, and in the subsequent movements on both sides 
of the James, at Deep Bottom, and at the explosion of Bum- 
side's mine — always, until the opening of an old wound com- 
pelled him to leave the field, Hancock was given the command 
which required the most superb daring, the clearest head, the 
most sustained military ability. More than once I heard 
General Grant say that if Meade were removed he should 
give the command of the Army of the Potomac to Hancock. 
In the march from Cold Harbor to the James, Grant's 
headquarters came up with Hancock at the point where Long 
Bridge had once crossed the Chickahominy. While the 
troops were passing, the commanders dismounted, and Grant, 
Hancock, and Meade were stretched on the grass together 
with their officers around. Never were three great soldiers 
more in complete personal accord. There was no assumption 
on the part of Grant, and the feeling of camaraderie was per- 
fect. They chaffed each other; they told stories of West 
Point and the frontier; they discussed the movement in 
which they were engaged ; and finally Meade referred to some 
resolutions of a Pennsylvania convention nominating Hancock 
for the Presidency. Both Grant and Meade poked fun at 
Hancock for this, and he good-naturedly received it all. 
Indeed, it rather tickled him. 

He was not appointed a brigadier in the regular army for 
Spottsylvania, but Grant was persistent and in August nomi- 
nated him again. This time the promotion was conferred. 

In 1866 the grade of general was created for Grant. This 
made Sherman lieutenant-general and left a vacancy among 
the major-generals, to which Grant promptly nominated 
Hancock, who thus received both his promotions from his old 
cadet comrade. 

But during the Reconstruction period, they took different 



GRANT AND HANCOCK. 37l 

sides. Grant believed that Congress was right in the long 
struggle with Andrew Johnson, but Hancock espoused the 
views of the President. Grant at first had no suspicion of 
the leaning of Hancock, and when it became apparent that 
Johnson was determined to remove Sheridan from command 
at New Orleans and substitute Hancock, the General-in- 
Chief sent a staff officer to warn him of the purpose of the 
President, and of what he considered its mischievous tendency. 
Hancock, however, was ordered by Johnson to report at 
Washington before he went to New Orleans, and Grant, who 
was now convinced that Johnson's course was full of danger 
to the country, went in person to visit Hancock at his rooms 
in Willard's Hotel to put him on his guard. But Hancock 
had already determined on his conduct, and was not to be 
affected by Grant's advice or urging. 

From this time their relations were strained. Hancock 
proceeded to New Orleans against the wish of Grant, deter- 
mined to carry out Johnson's policy, which the General-in- 
Chief believed to be almost treasonable, and which he had been 
directed by Congress to thwart. Hancock constantly issued 
orders in conformity with the views of the President, which 
Grant as constantly overruled. Finally Hancock asked to be 
relieved, and the request was granted. 

There never again was any pleasant intercourse between 
them, an<i there were times when each supposed the other had 
been discourteous. Grant was told that Hancock came to his 
headquarters and wrote his name without paying the General- 
in-Chief the courtesy of a further visit ; and remarks of each 
were repeated to the other, not calculated to encourage 
amiable sentiments. But there was no positive hostility. 

When Hancock was nominated for the Presidency, Grant, 
in the privacy of his own house at Galena, uttered some 
caustic criticisms to an indiscreet visitor, which the same day 
were telegraphed to the entire world. Among other things 
he said that Hancock was "ambitious, vain, and weak." 



3 - 2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Hancock at first refused to believe that Grant had used the 
words ; but, though they had not been meant for the public, 
Grant could not and would not disavow them when the 
reporters rushed for confirmation or denial. Then Hancock 
was very much hurt, and I doubt whether a reconciliation 
could ever have been effected. 

In his last days General Grant more than once spoke to 
me of this circumstance and regretted the pain he had given 
Hancock. He was generous in his praise, and, though he 
criticised what he thought foibles and even graver faults, he 
declared that he ought not to have used the words which 
Hancock disliked. This Hancock never knew; but with 
equal nobility he bore his part in the great funeral over his 
ancient chief and comrade. The majestic character of those 
rites that attracted the attention of the world was greatly 
due to the tender care and chivalrous punctilio of him who 
thought the dead chieftain had wounded him. The soldiers 
had fought their last fight and ended every difference. Each 
at the last was full of soldierly and brotherly generosity for 
the other. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

GRANT AND CATACAZY. 

IN the first year of Grant's Presidency, Mr. Constantine 
de Catacazy was appointed Minister from Russia to the 
United States. I was a Secretary of Legation at London 
at the time, and Andrew J. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, had just 
been made Minister of the United States to St. Petersburg. 
The new American plenipotentiary passed through London, 
and when I called on him he said he was not ready to pro- 
ceed direct to his post, and asked me to signify to Baron 
Brunnow, the Russian Ambassador in London, whom I knew, 
that the delay was not occasioned by any disrespect or dis- 
courtesy. 

Accordingly, I called on the Ambassador, who was a per- 
sonage of distinction in European diplomacy. He was then 
full seventy years of age, had participated in the negotiations 
and discussions that preceded the Crimean War, and been 
prominent in all the international affairs of the Continent 
afterward; a courtly, stately, wily, clever old diplomatist. 
He received me cordially, and, when I made known my 
errand, promised at once to advise his Government of what 
Curtin had desired. He knew that I had been the private 
secretary of Grant, for it is the business of diplomatists to 
know everything that relates to governments or their mem- 
bers, or even subordinates ; and he seemed to think at once, 
" I may make use of this young man ; I can say things to 
him I could not say to his Minister." Perhaps, also, he 
thought he could extract things from the young man which 

(373) 



274 GRANT IN PEACE. 

V 

he could not extract from the Minister; but this design was 
not so conspicuous as the apparent desire to be confidential. 

He evidently wanted to convey certain information to the 
American Government. He first told me that Russia was 
about sending a new envoy to the United States, and then 
the crafty old fox of an Ambassador, full of his diplomatic 
and aristocratic pride, took the arm of the democratic secre- 
tary, and walked up and down the long rooms of Chesham 
House, giving what he hoped I would report, — his opinions 
of Catacazy. He did not like his colleague, that was clear. 
He said Catacazy was not high-born, was even of obscure 
origin, but clever, after a fashion, had led a somewhat scan- 
dalous life, though that didn't hurt him in Brunnow's esti- 
mation, and that he was a favorite and protege of Gortchakoff, 
at that time the Russian Prime Minister; all of which in- 
formation I carefully garnered up and forwarded to Washing- 
ton in advance of the arrival of the plenipotentiary. This 
was in the summer of 1869. 

In the autumn I returned to Washington and found Cata- 
cazy already established. He was a man of effusive manners, 
professing great friendship and admiration for most of those 
he met, saying the most agreeable things, but without the art 
to make his hearers believe that his utterances were sincere. 
His flatteries were too fulsome, his falsehoods too plain. He 
was easy, but not elegant in behavior, smirked too much to 
be dignified, and there were few who admired, though many 
perceived, his phase of cleverness. He tried to make himself 
acceptable to everybody, entertained liberally, paid all his 
visits and social duties punctiliously, yet was unmistakably 
vulgar. 

His wife, though long past the freshness of youth, was 
still beautiful, — a tall, golden-haired, graceful German woman ; 
while he was short, ugly, and scrubby. Madame Catacazy 
had been sold — married they call it in Europe — when she 
was the merest girl, to an Italian prince, who was in diplo- 



GRANT AND CATACAZY. 375 

macy, a man of fortune as well as rank, and old enough to be 
her grandfather. She was very averse to the bargain, but 
that mattered little to those who made it, and she became a 
princess and an Ambassadress. After a while the diplomatic 
pair appeared in Brazil, where the young Catacazy was then 
a Secretary in the Russian Legation. He pleased the eye or 
the fancy of the unwilling wife, and one day there was a 
great scandal in Rio Janeiro. The Italian Ambassadress 
was missing, and no one could account for her disappearance. 
Search was made in every direction, for it was feared she 
had been kidnapped or had committed suicide. In the con- 
fusion which so great a social event created the simultaneous 
absence of the Russian Secretary was not at first observed, 
they had concealed their liaison so cleverly. But, in a week 
or two, the couple were discovered living in a cottage in the 
outskirts of the Brazilian capital. Catacazy was recalled 
from the court of Dom Pedro, and his princess went with 
him. In due time there was a divorce or a death, I forget 
which, and madame was free, and married the Russian 
Secretary. 

Such little episodes do not affect the diplomatic career of 
a rising Russian, especially if he has a Prime Minister for a 
patron, and Catacazy was pushed in his profession. He 
went about to various courts and countries, and was at one 
time Secretary of Legation at Washington. But his chief 
forbade him to bring his partner to the capital, and the lady 
was not at that time introduced into American society. 
After twenty years, however, Catacazy was made Minister to 
the United States. It was, perhaps, supposed that his his- 
tory had been forgotten. But the ladies remembered it, and 
those who were in power held a consultation as to whether 
the envoy's wife should be received. Of course, none of the 
austere would have dreamed of visiting her had they and she 
been in private station ; but in public life things are differ- 
ent, and it was decided to ignore her past, lest to notice it 



3 -rg GRANT IN PEACE. 

might complicate international relations. So Madame was 
visited. It was not the only time in the history of the Repub- 
lic when diplomatic women have obtained a position or an 
absolution, which as private persons they might have failed 
to secure. There have been cabinet councils of the ladies 
under other Administrations on similar points, and with the 
same result, and doubtless there will be again, so long as 
women are frail and men betray. 

The newcomer was declared fascinating by the men. She 
dressed with gorgeous taste, and her superb neck and arms, 
long, golden hair, and melting eyes made many think that 
Catacazy's sin had not been without its provocation. Their 
house was attractive, after a fashion ; gay, but not elegant. 
There was high play, and the tone was, as might have been 
expected from the rank and antecedents of its mistress, 
courtly, but not gene. Catacazy's colleagues complained that 
the Minister and his wife played against each other. She 
staked high, and he low, and Madame's partners always lost. 
They do such things in Paris, too, but not, as a rule, in di- 
plomatic circles. 

Catacazy once thought it worth his while to attempt to 
win my good will, and asked for a copy of my History of 
Grant, which he wanted to have translated into Russian. I 
am ashamed to confess that I was elated at this proof of the 
popularity of my book, and told it to General Grant. 

"Why, Badeau," said the President, "do you believe 
him ? " From which it may be judged that Grant had begun 
to fathom the character of the plenipotentiary. I never 
heard any more about the translation; but Catacazy was not 
the only foreign minister who wanted to translate Grant's his- 
tory when he was President, and afterwards forgot to carry 
out the plan. 

The next summer I returned to Europe, and remained 
abroad for several years, so that I can only tell this part of 
my story at second-hand. Catacazy being a born intriguer, 



GRANT AND CATACAZY. 377 

soon got into complications of a personal character with the 
State Department. It is an intricate story ; there was a claim 
of Americans against the Russian Government, on account of 
arms furnished during the Crimean war. The claim was not 
pressed very earnestly by the State Department, yet Catacazy 
seemed very much concerned ; it was the only important 
business intrusted to him by his Government. At any rate, 
he resorted to the newspapers, and published attacks on the 
State Department, and even on the President and his family, 
which were traced directly to his pen. Sworn affidavits 
proved the authorship. When he was called to account, his 
denials were so lame, and his excuses so transparent that they 
could not be received. Still he persisted in annoying and 
even maligning the Government to which he was accredited, 
and finally the American Minister at St. Petersburg was 
directed to procure his recall. In the meantime, both the 
President and the Secretary of State refused to receive him 
at their houses. 

But Gortchakoff was his patron, and Catacazy was unwill- 
ing to be removed in disgrace. Just at this time the Grand 
Duke Alexis, son of the Czar, was about visiting America, 
and it would have been inconvenient to insist on a change of 
ministers at such a juncture. The Russian Ministry was 
fully aware how disagreeable Catacazy's presence was to the 
American Government, and nothing is better established 
than the right of a Government to refuse to receive an 
unacceptable Minister ; in private life gentlemen may decline 
communications borne by unwelcome messengers, and for 
Gortchakoff to persist in retaining an envoy displeasing to 
another Government, was in itself a discourtesy. At any 
other time the objectionable representative would have been 
peremptorily dismissed. But the Administration was unwill- 
ing to take this step on the arrival of the son of the Czar. 
The conduct of Russia during our civil war had not been 
forgotten, and the Government shared the grateful feeling 



378 GRANT IX PEACE. 

which the entire country entertained. It was a personal feel, 
ing, too, for the Autocrat directs the policy of his empire 
absolutely; and the obligation was to the Emperor himself. 
So Catacazy was allowed to remain. 

The Grand Duke arrived, and Catacazy presented him to 
the President. But the Secretary of State first informed the 
Minister explicitly that his words and actions must be limited 
to the most formal ceremony. He was not to offer his hand 
to the President, for it would be refused ; he must merely 
say: "Mr. President, I have the honor to present, etc., etc." 
If he attempted any further conversation, Mr. Fish assured 
the Russian he would himself interrupt and expose the situa- 
tion to the company. Thus warned, the envoy submitted ; 
he did not deviate from his instructions, but performed his 
ignoble role to the letter. 

It was also signified to the suite of the Grand Duke that 
although rather than offend the majesty of friendly Russia, 
the President had tolerated the presence of Catacazy on this 
occasion, it would be impossible to invite the envoy to dinner. 
The President would be very glad to entertain the Prince in 
this way, and to offer him every courtesy, but he could not in- 
clude the offensive Minister. The invitation was declined, 
doubtless through the influence of Catacazy. In this way the 
son of the greatest Imperial friend that America ever had was 
precluded from receiving the hospitalities which the Govern- 
ment was most anxious to extend ; and while the whole country 
was preparing him banquets Alexis quitted Washington with- 
out dining with either the President or the Secretary of State. 

Immediately after the Grand Duke's departure Catacazy 
was recalled. He had produced a diplomatic embarrass- 
ment and was therefore in disgrace with his own Government. 
The Emperor exiled him for a time; he was ordered to 
remain in Paris, and not to write to the newspapers; 
but he disobeyed and published an open letter in this 
country on the subject of his difficulties with the State 



GRANT AND CATACAZY. ^7Q 

Department ; for this his pension was stopped by his Gov- 
ernment. 

The sons of Czars, however, are not used to any circum- 
stances but those that are agreeable, and the memory of the 
Grand Duke's visit rankled. A year and a half afterward, 
Marshall Jewell was appointed Minister of the United States 
at St. Petersburg. He himself described to me his reception. 
Upon his arrival at the capital, it was much longer than 
usual before any arrangements were made for his presenta- 
tion to the Czar. The delay was so marked, and the bearing 
of the courtiers so constrained, that neither could have been 
accidental. Finally, the Minister was informed that the Czar 
would receive him. He was kept waiting half an hour in the 
ante-chamber, before His Majesty appeared, with his gloves 
on, and ready for a drive or a ride. The Minister was taken 
up to him, and Alexander, without extending his hand, simply 
halted for a moment, as he was passing, and exclaimed " Your 
Government did not treat my son Alexis well;" and then 
moved on; and this was the greeting from the majesty of 
Russia to the representative of the United States. 

Years after this when General Grant went to Europe, it 
was thought that the feeling of the Imperial family had still 
not been dispelled ; and the American Minister of that day, 
Mr. Boker, was anxious that the ex-President should not 
visit Russia, lest unpleasant circumstances might occur.* 



*On the 4th of May, 1887, Mr. Boker wrote to me: 
" I did advise General Grant against going to Russia, because 
on my presentation to the Emperor, he used this language ; ' I am 
grateful to the American people for their treatment of my son 
Alexis ; but not to your Government, not to your Government, 
Sir.' These words Alexander uttered in a towering passion. I 
asked Prince Gortchakoff, as was my simple duty, for an explana- 
tion of these words ; but from him I obtained more words than 
satisfaction. 

" You may remember that I saw General Grant in London 
while you were there. He informed me that he intended to visit 



380 GRAXT IX PEACE. 

General Grant often talked the matter over with me, and 
always said that he was not going to Russia for the pur- 
pose of visiting the Emperor. If his Majesty chose to 
welcome him, he should be happy to receive his courtesies, 
but if otherwise, he would not be uncomfortable. He wanted 
to see the country, and study the people and their institutions. 
Accordingly he determined to go. 

Upon his arrival the successor of Mr. Boker waited 
upon Prince Gortchakoff, and was informed that the Czar 
would be happy to receive General Grant. An interview 
was arranged; the General went to the palace accompanied 
by the Minister, and was met by Prince Gortchakoff, who 
ushered him into a room where the Czar awaited him. Alex- 
ander at once came forward, gave General Grant his hand 
and led him to a sofa, where they sat for half an hour discuss- 
ing the politics and characteristics of the two countries. 
The Czar spoke tolerable English, and when he was at a 
loss for a word, Gortchakoff, who stood behind the sofa, 
came to his master's aid. Alexander seemed very curi- 
ous, General Grant told me, to know how an American 
President made his Cabinet, and how he dealt with trouble- 
some subordinates, and the two exchanged experiences. The 

Russia, and I then advised him against doing so, fearing that he 
might be coldly received, or not received at all by the Emperor. 
From London I returned to St. Petersburg ; and on mentioning to 
Prince Gortchakoff General Grant's proposed visit, Gortchakoff 
advised against it in a manner that was almost menacing. Before 
General Grant reached St. Petersburg, I was on my way home, and 
1 was glad to read in the newspapers that his visit passed off with- 
out any serious result. 

"On public occasions it was the custom of the Emperor to ask 
the Ambassadors and the Ministers after the health, etc., of the 
Heads of their respective Governments. These questions the 
Emperor never asked me, although I as regularly said, before the 
Emperor could get away from me: - 1 am happy to inform your 
Majesty that the President is in excellent health.' " 



GRANT AND CATACAZY. 381 

Czar evidently desired to show the greatest respecc to the 
ex-President of the United States. He treated him with a 
freedom from forms which showed that he thought Grant's 
position almost, if not quite, on a level with his own; but 
there was no subsequent invitation. The palaces and gal- 
leries were thrown open to the General, but he was not 
invited to dinner. 



" 



CHAPTER XLV. 

GRANT AND SICKLES. 

THE career of Sickles came in contact with that of 
Grant on several interesting occasions. They met for 
the first time when Grant visited Washington to receive his 
commission as Lieutenant-General. It was at a levee at the 
White House. Lincoln, Stanton, and Grant stood in a 
group at the south end of the great East Room ; and Grant, 
all suffused, looked like a lion at bay, as the crowd pressed 
up and passed him, shaking his hand. The experience was 
new to him then, and it was his first visit to the capital. 
"Besieged by friends, even you must surrender, General," 
said Sickles, as he was presented by Stanton. " Yes," re- 
plied Grant, " I have been surrendering for two hours, until 
I have no arms left." He could be humorous in his. way, 
though he did not often attempt a pun. 

Prior to Grant's arrival at the East, the reorganization of 
the Army of the Potomac had been determined by Stanton, 
Halleck, and Meade, and among the changes which then 
occurred was the consolidation of the Third corps with the 
Second. It was a cruel and unnecessary act, wounding the 
pride of the members of the corps, and striking at the very 
basis of soldierly enthusiasm ; for the Third corps had a 
brilliant record, and it was hard to lose its identity in that of 
another organization. Sickles, the commander of the corps 
at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, had lost a leg in the 
last-named battle, and was of course unfitted to return to the 
field ; but he went at once to the new General-in-Chief to 
protest against the absorption of his old command. 

(332) 



GRANT AND SICKLES. og^ 

Grant, however, thought it wise not to interfere in the 
organization of the Eastern army, for he had determined to 
leave matters of administration to Meade. He was always 
careful to commit as much executive power as possible to his 
immediate subordinates ; and to overrule both Halleck and 
Meade in this matter would have provoked ill-feeling at the 
moment of assuming his own new functions, besides being 
contrary to all his usual course. Sickles appreciated the 
situation, and though he would have been glad to procure a 
re-institution of his historic corps, he bore no malice to 
Grant because he was unsuccessful. 

In September, 1865, Sickles was placed in command in 
South Carolina. He had been a Democratic Congressman 
before the Rebellion, and intimate with many Southern poli- 
ticians, as well as conversant with important civil affairs. 
His appointment to supervise this portion of the conquered 
territory was therefore appropriate. When Grant visited the 
South by Johnson's orders in the first winter after the war, 
he found Sickles with his headquarters at Charleston, busily 
engaged in the endeavor to build up the prosperity of the 
State. Grant at this time hoped that pacification would 
proceed with rapid steps, and was in favor of manifesting the 
most lenient spirit toward the fallen enemy. He had long 
discussions with Sickles, that lasted late into the night, 
receiving the opinions of his lieutenant, and basing his own 
directions upon them, for the two were in complete accord. 
I accompanied Grant on this tour and remember well with 
what warm approval he spoke of Sickles's course. 

Sickles gave General Grant a dinner during his stay and 
asked many important Southerners to his table to meet the 
Commander of the Union armies ; among them ex-Governor 
Aiken ; Orr, who had been Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and an intimate friend of Sickles in other times ; 
Trenholm, the Confederate Secretary of the Treasury; 
Magraw, the last of the rebel Governors of South Carolina, 



•584 GRANT IN PEACE. 

and Trescot, the rebel diplomatist. All were animated by a 
grateful feeling toward the hero of Appomattox ; all were 
submissive, and anxious to conform to the terms which he had 
proposed; and Grant himself was still in harmony with the 
President. There were stanch Union men also present and 
several prominent soldiers of the command, among whom I 
remember General Devens, afterward Attorney-General under 
President Hayes. Altogether it was a remarkable company. 

One little circumstance connected with the dinner be- 
trayed the straits to which the most important Southerners 
had been reduced by the war. When Aiken received his 
invitation he at once called on Sickles and said he should be 
happy to avail himself of the courtesy, but his wardrobe 
would not allow him to show proper respect to the General- 
in-Chief. He did not possess a coat such as gentlemen wear 
at dinner; he had nothing indeed but the homespun suit 
made in the Confederacy during the Rebellion ; for all sup- 
plies from abroad had been intercepted by the blockade ; and 
thus one of the greatest landholders at the South, the owner 
once of a thousand slaves, a man at the very head of the 
aristocracy of South Carolina, was unable to appear at dinner, 
without, as he feared, displaying disrespect to the illustrious 
guest, by his attire. 

Sickles, however, assured the Governor that General 
Grant would be happy to meet him in his every -day suit ; 
and the courtly gentleman came in gray and discussed with the 
Union Chief the affairs of the country, the prospects of the 
South, the amelioration of the condition of the blacks and 
whites. The table and the fare were both impromptu and 
smacked of the camp and the results of war almost as much 
as the garb of the company. Grant was never punctilious 
in dress, and at this time in his career even less so than 
afterward ; he wore no epaulettes and his uniform coat 
was unbuttoned; but the interest and grace of the occasion 
and the importance of the conversation equaled any of the 



GRANT AND SICKLES. 385 

later entertainments offered him abroad, surrounded by the 
elegance and glitter of a court. 

Sickles carried out his instructions faithfully. He was, as 
I have said, fully inspired with Grant's own desire to treat 
the conquered with magnanimity; but as time wore on, and 
the policy of Johnson was developed, with all its unfortunate 
results upon the temper and ambition of the South, he, like 
every other Union soldier of importance on the ground, 
determined to do what he could to enforce the measures 
enacted by Congress. He shared the sentiment of Grant and 
Sheridan and Pope and Meade and Halleck and Canby, all of 
whom believed that the law was to be obeyed. Efforts were 
made by the Administration to obtain his support. It was 
remembered that he had been a Democrat before the Rebel- 
lion, and when it was perceived that he seemed inclined to 
follow Congress rather than the President, he was offered 
first the collectorship of New York, and then various diplo- 
matic positions, which would of course take him from South 
Carolina and leave his place to be filled by an adherent of 
the Administration. The mission to the Netherlands was 
proposed to him with the suggestion that after a while he 
should be sent to France. But Sickles before replying to 
the proposition wrote to Grant, and declared that unless the 
General-in-Chief desired a change he would prefer to 
remain in his military command. Grant had no wish to 
supersede Sickles by any successor, and so informed him, and 
Sickles declined the diplomatic appointment. 

As the difference between Grant and Johnson ripened, he 
became a still more active coadjutor of Grant in carrying out 
the Congressional policy. Though not offensive in conduct 
or language, he made it apparent that he considered the de- 
clared will of Congress the law of the land, and when Con- 
gress had definitely pronounced and been endorsed by the 
people, there was no one more resolute or efficient than he in 
his obedience both to the law and to Grant to whom the en- 



3 86 GRANT IN PEACE. 

forcement of the law was especially committed by the Legis- 
lature. In consequence the President became as hostile to 
Sickles as to Sheridan or Pope. Sickles had been appointed a 
Colonel in the regular army by Johnson on the recommenda- 
tion of Stanton and Grant, after the visit of the General-in- 
Chief to his command ; and he was one of the District Com- 
manders under the Reconstruction system ; but he was also 
one of those removed by the President during the period 
when Sheridan and Stanton became the objects of Johnson's 
hostility. 

But Grant stood by Sickles as he did by Sheridan. When 
the two generals arrived in Washington from their commands, 
the General-in-Chief held a reception at his house to mark 
his approval of their course. The party was largely attended 
by officers of the army and navy and the diplomatic corps, 
and was almost the first public expression of Grant's antag- 
onism to President Johnson. But he did not confine his 
demonstrations to social courtesies. One of the first execu- 
tive acts of Grant as President was to offer to re-instate both 
Sheridan and Sickles in the positions from which his prede- 
cessor had removed them. In the meantime, however, the 
situation had changed. The Congressional policy was trium- 
phant, and there was no need for Sickles's return, while Canby, 
his successor, had proved as faithful as he, and a reinstate- 
ment might seem a reflection on one who rather deserved 
reward. Sickles, therefore, did not desire to be restored. 
Grant did not insist and the ex-Congressman was made a full 
Major-General on the retired list of the regular army, — one 
of the highest honors paid to any soldier after the war, 
whether a graduate of West Point or from the Volunteers. 

The relations of the United States with Mexico, I have 
already shown, were always a matter of keen interest to 
Grant ; and when he entered upon his Presidential functions 
he hoped to negotiate a cession of territory from the sister 
Republic. With a view to accomplishing this design, the 



GRANT AND SICKLES. 387 

mission to Mexico was tendered to Sickles through the State 
Department in the first month of Grant's Administration. It 
is within my personal knowledge that Grant particularly- 
desired that Sickles should accept the post, for he had a high 
idea of his intelligence and of his dexterity in dealing with 
political problems ; but, after deliberate consultation, in which 
Sickles was included, it was decided that no effort should be 
made at that time for an extension of territory in the direction 
of Mexico. The independence of Cuba and Porto Rico and 
the emancipation of the slaves in the Antilles, both Sickles and 
Rawlins held, were worthier objects of Grant's foreign policy. 

Rawlins, indeed, not only advocated intervention in the 
dispute between Cuba and the Mother Country, but was anx- 
ious to acquire the Island, and Grant himself was by no 
means averse to the idea. With these views, Rawlins sug- 
gested to Sickles the position of Minister to Spain, and the 
Secretary of War even went in person to New York to urge 
the proposition, which, according to etiquette, should have 
proceeded from the State Department. Sickles, however, 
was unwilling to give up his rank in the army ; and it was 
arranged that he should be retired for the purpose of receiv- 
ing the diplomatic appointment. Officers on the active list 
were at that time prohibited from holding diplomatic posi- 
tions, but the law did not apply to retired officers. This 
point was very fully discussed by the President, the Secre- 
tary of State, and the Secretary of War ; and finally Sickles 
consented to be retired and to accept a leave of absence from 
the War Department, which would enable him to serve under 
the Department of State as Minister to Spain. In all this 
arrangement Grant took the liveliest interest. 

I have explained in earlier chapters the difference of opin- 
ion between Secretary Fish and General Rawlins in regard 
to the policy that Grant should pursue toward Spain. While 
Rawlins was for recognition of the independence of Cuba 
and the speedy acquisition of the Island by the United 
States, Fish thought the difficulties with England should 



ogg GRANT IN PEACE. 

have precedence. Nevertheless, a negotiation was begun 
under Sickles at Madrid that promised to accomplish the 
peaceful purchase of Cuba while Prim was Prime Minister of 
Spain. A document was forwarded by Sickles to the State 
Department — not as a part of the public archives, but for 
the confidential knowledge of the Government, in which 
Prim declared himself ready to treat for the sale of the Island 
to the Cubans, the United States to become security for the 
purchase bonds, and to take a mortgage . on the Island in 
return. This, it was supposed by all concerned, would result 
in the transfer of Cuba to this country. Prim especially 
stipulated with Sickles that his part in the agreement should 
not be made known during his lifetime ; the proposition must 
seem to proceed from other sources ; for he declared that not 
only his political position and influence, but his very life, 
would be endangered if the jealous Spaniards discovered pre- 
maturely that he was arranging for the cession of Cuba under 
any circumstances. He saw, however, that Cuba was a drag 
upon Spain, that both the Island and the Mother Country 
would be benefited by the arrangement, and that it was only 
the stupid pride of Andalusia and Castile that stood in the 
way. But his assassination put an end to all these schemes. 
Rawlins also died in the first year of Grant's Administration, 
and the loss of his influence and advocacy was fatal to the 
policy he had so much at heart. There was no one in the 
Cabinet to uphold his views with equal energy, and Grant 
conformed to those of the Secretary of State. Cuba was not 
acquired; and when Sickles perceived that the object pro- 
posed for his mission was not to be attained, he resigned 
Hut General Grant told me during the last months of his life 
that if Rawlins had lived, he believed Cuba would have been 
acquired by the United States during his Administration. 

While Grant was in Europe circumstances again brought 
Sickles into peculiar relations with his former chief in war 
and politics. The ex-Minister was living in Paris after his 
departure from Spain, and had become interested in French 



GRANT AND SICKLES. 3 5g 

affairs and intimate with Thiers, the famous ex-President of 
the re-established Republic. Thiers, however, had fallen 
before Grant went abroad, and McMahon was President, 
with a strong leaning toward legitimacy. In June, 1877, 
the situation in France was complicated. The real Repub- 
licans were out of power, and an election was approaching 
which might overthrow McMahon's allies. Upon General 
Grant's arrival in London it was at once seen that his pres- 
ence in Paris might be used by the McMahon party as an 
opportunity to pose as friends of the great republican general 
of America, and the more radical Frenchmen became very 
anxious that his visit should be postponed until after the 
elections. 

Washburne, once the intimate friend of Grant, was then 
Minister to France, and he wrote to the ex-President advising 
that he should not make his visit at this juncture. But the 
counsel made little impression, and was not, indeed, very ur- 
gent. The relations of the two had not of late been close, and 
whether the French politicians had learned this fact or no, 
Thiers addressed Sickles and asked him to proceed in person 
to London and explain the situation to Grant. For Thiers 
took it as certain that Grant's sympathies would be with the 
Republicans, and that he would conform to their wish and 
delay his visit to Paris if he understood the circumstances. 

Sickles at once undertook the mission. He traveled to 
London, and explained to Grant the belief of the French 
republicans that his presence might be made a weapon in 
favor of the re-actionists. Mrs. Grant was present at the 
interview. It was she who had hitherto been anxious to 
visit Paris at this time, but she at once consented to defer 
her shopping and her sight-seeing, so as to spend the sum- 
mer in Switzerland and Germany. General Grant accord- 
ingly changed his plans, and in a day or two left London for 
Belgium. His visit to Paris took place some months later. 
The elections had occurred in the meantime, and the Liberal 



2qo GRANT IN TEACE. 

party had triumphed. If McMahon cherished any of those 
intentions which afterward brought about his downfall, they 
were postponed ; and it is possible that General Grant's 
action contributed to the stability of the Republic in France. 
At least, the greatest of French statesmen at that epoch 
thought it worth while to commit the mission to Sickles 
which I have described. 

Sickles returned to Paris, arriving late in the day, and 
as soon as possible made his way to the residence of Thiers 
to communicate the result of his embassy. The ex-Presi- 
dent was living at the mansion rebuilt for him by the 
Government after the destruction of his house by the Com- 
mune. He dined early, and later in the evening was accus- 
tomed to receive the world in a stately salon of this building 
in the Rue George. But there was always an interval after 
his simple dinner before the crowd arrived, and often the old 
statesman seized this moment to snatch a little sleep. Thus, 
when Sickles was announced, Thiers was lying on a sofa 
behind a screen at the further end of the salon, sleeping ; but 
Madame Thiers received the envoy. She wished at once to 
waken the ex-President, but this Sickles would not allow, and 
he remained in conversation with the old lady, until Madame 
Doche, her famous sister-in-law, entered. Of course, he paid 
his compliments to this lady, and while they were talking, 
Madame Thiers also dozed. Then came in Barthelemy 
Saint Hilaire, once the private secretary of Thiers, and after- 
ward a member of his cabinet. lie also wished to waken 
Thiers; but still Sickles said, "Let him sleep"; and during 
this discussion Madame Doche fell into a doze. The three 
old people were used to this little refreshment before the 
entrance of the general company ; and thus the American 
plenipotentiary, entrusted with a political errand that was 
thought important to the peace of France, found the ex-Presi- 
dent and his venerable family all asleep when he went to 
communicate the result of his journey. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

GRANT AND ROMERO. 

NO account of General Grant's career would be complete 
that left out a relation of his intimacy with Mathias 
Romero, so long the Mexican Minister to the United States ; 
— an intimacy that began in public and international affairs 
of the highest consequence to their respective countries, and 
reached into their private relations, that connected them in 
business and diplomacy, that was marked by instances of 
generous feeling and personal appreciation on both sides, 
and lasted till death broke the bonds which had attached 
them for more than twenty years. Their friendship was the 
more remarkable because Grant, as a rule, was not fond of 
foreigners ; in the early part of his prominence he was not at 
all a cosmopolitan, and with rare exceptions all through life 
he confined his intimacies to men of his own nationality. 
His own peculiarities were so marked and his identity with 
his country-people so strong that he could not readily share 
the feeling of those of an entirely different race, nor throw 
himself into the situation of men bred under entirely differ- 
ent institutions. But Romero, though of the Latin blood, 
was an American and a republican, the representative of a 
country that had been attacked at the same time, and, as 
Grant believed, in the same interest as the Union ; and these 
circumstances first created and then fostered a very genuine 
sympathy between them. 

General Grant first met Romero in the autumn of 1864, 
while the national armies were lying at City Point investing 

(390 



392 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



Richmond. The Mexican Minister arrived at the headquar- 
ters with his countryman, General Doblado, bringing letters 
from the Secretary of State; and the two foreigners spent 
several days in the camp of the General-in-Chief. Grant paid 
them every courtesy and sent me with them to visit first 
General Meade at the front of the Army of the Potomac, and 
afterward General Butler, who commanded the Arm}- of the 
James. The peculiar interest which Grant had always felt 
in the success of the Republic in Mexico made him especially 
glad to receive these representatives of the Republic. He 
assured them of his sympathy and good wishes, discussed 
the situation in their country very fulljk and interchanged 
views upon the steps that should be taken to hasten the 
expulsion of the French and Maximilian. 

After this Grant and Romero were not thrown together 
until four or five months later, when the end of the Southern 
Rebellion enabled the victorious general to convert some of 
his views in regard to Mexico into action. When Grant 
arrived in Washington, after the surrender of Lee, Romero 
promptly called on him, and Grant informed the Minister of 
the purport of his orders to Sheridan, for the cavalry general 
had been sent at once to the Rio Grande to watch the 
Mexican frontier. From this time the Northern soldier and 
the Southern diplomatist worked in harmony. Grant, as 
I have earlier shown, was extremely annoyed at the delay 
in the action of our own Government and thought the French 
Emperor should have been notified at once to withdraw his 
troops from Mexico. He had many conferences with the 
Mexican Minister on the subject; even expressing a desire 
to go at the head of an army himself and assist the Mexicans 
in driving out the invader. Doubtless the patriots got new- 
courage when they heard through their representative how- 
stanch a friend they had in the head of the Union armies, 
and their efforts were redoubled with the knowledge of his 
sympathy and the hope of his support. 



GRANT AND ROMERO. *g* 

I was present at many of the conversations of these allies, 
and had especial charge of those of their papers which Grant 
was unwilling to expose to ordinary official inspection. Some 
of them it would hardly be proper even now to make public. 
Romero furnished Grant with constant information from his 
own Government and country, and many an intercepted dis- 
patch have I translated, predicting or discussing events in 
Europe as well as in Mexico that were thought likely to 
affect the destiny of the neighboring State ; letters describing 
the failing health of Napoleon III, the anxieties of Carlotta, 
the manoeuvres of Maximilian, and even the intrigues in the 
United States which complicated our own politics with those 
of Mexico. 

When at last the end of the feeble empire came Grant 
often told me his views. He was very stern, and thought 
that the pretender to a throne should be punished as severely 
as any other traitor. Because Maximilian was of royal blood 
did not lessen his offense, and that he was of foreign origin 
intruding his ambitions into a country where he was unwel- 
come heightened in Grant's eyes the enormity of his crime. 
He more than once said in my hearing that Maximilian ought 
to die; and he told me that he made the opinion known to 
Romero, who he supposed found means to communicate it to 
his Government ; not of course in official documents, for 
diplomatists are not in the habit of entrusting such secret 
matters to public dispatches ; they have other channels than 
those accessible to Congressional resolutions. But although 
neither Grant nor Romero chose to commit himself by 
recorded expressions, Grant always believed that his tacit 
condemnation of the invader had its weight. It is certain 
that had he raised a finger Maximilian would have been 
saved. But it was pollice verso; the thumb was turned 
breastward. 

This apparent harshness, however, was due to public 
considerations, not to hostility toward an individual. Grant 



394 



GRANT IN TEACE. 



believed it necessary to show European monarchists that 
they could not with impunity attempt to set up institutions 
on this continent menacing to our own ; he thought the blow 
offered to Mexico was in reality meant for this country ; and 
he considered that no such effectual lesson could be taught 
imperial enemies of this republic and of all republics, as the 
punishment of a princely offender. He had been lenient, as 
the world knows, to his own countrymen when they had 
rebelled, and never in his career was he cruel with any per- 
sonal reason ; but now, as in the Wilderness and in the 
Valley of Virginia, grave public considerations overcame the 
natural softness of his nature. Such action may be as truly 
magnanimous in the original meaning of the word, as the 
clemency that is more admired ; and had Grant not pos- 
sessed the quality of a Brutus he would not have achieved 
what he did for his country and his own renown. But there 
are few Americans with whom it is necessary to defend his 
action toward the unfortunate Maximilian. 

When the Mexican Republic was reestablished, Romero 
was recalled to a place in the Home Government — a fitting 
reward of his services, which were indeed the most arduous, 
and perhaps the most effectual rendered to his country in her 
time of trial. For this representative had the true diplomatic 
talent ; he perceived the influence of General Grant at this 
crisis, as well as his sympathies, and did his best to increase 
the one and avail himself of the other. The intimacy he 
established with the victorious General was of vast import- 
ance to his own country, and the use he made of it was both 
patriotic and legitimate. General Grant not only shared but 
enjoyed the intimacy, and was anxious that it should be turned 
to the account of Mexico. Romero had been constantly 
recognized as the Mexican representative by our own Govern- 
ment, but of course he exchanged no courtesies with the 
Ministers of France and Austriaand England; his diplomatic 
consequence was therefore lessened, but Grant took every 



GRANT AND ROMERO. o gc . 

opportunity to show him deference and attention, and thus 
enhance his consequence; and Grant's own position was so 
peculiar at this time that any civilities from him possessed 
unusual importance. Before Romero left the United States 
he had the gratification of presenting the family of the 
Mexican President, Juarez, at Grant's house. The French 
Minister, with his wife, was present on this occasion, and 
Grant took pains to treat his republican guests with signifi- 
cant distinction ; a fact doubtless reported to the Tuileries 
by the imperial envoy. 

As soon as Grant was elected President he opened a 
correspondence through me with Romero, who had now 
returned to his own country; the nature of this I have else- 
where described ; but during the period of Grant's two 
administrations Romero remained in Mexico, and each was 
engaged in the affairs of his own nation. They exchanged 
no direct communications for eight years. 

Subsequently, however, the Mexican was again sent to 
the United States as Minister, and then resumed his inti- 
macy with General Grant. In 1880 the ex-President paid a 
visit to Mexico and Romero took pains to ensure him such 
a reception as it was fitting the re-established Republic 
should pay to the man who had been its stanch and power- 
ful friend when it most needed friends. While in that coun- 
try General Grant conceived the idea of developing the 
resources of Mexico in her own interest and that of the 
United States, and on his return to the North Romero 
naturally became interested in such views and plans. At 
this time General Grant organized a company in New York 
for the purpose of building a railroad from the City of Mexico 
to the frontier of Guatemala, with branches both to the Gulf 
of Mexico and the Pacific ; he even returned to Mexico 
to make the necessary arrangements with the Government 
there. Romero was connected with this enterprise. His 
relations at home enabled him to procure important conces- 



396 GRANT IN PEACK 

sions from the Governor of one of the Mexican States, and 
these he transferred to the company of which Grant was 
President. But neither the General nor the Envoy was im- 
properly interested in the business. Their connection was 
patriotic and public, and pure in every way. The enterprise 
proved unsuccessful at the time, but I never heard that any 
one was injured financially by the temporary failure. 

During this period, while General Grant was pressing 
upon the business community and upon statesmen the im- 
portance of developing both political and commercial rela- 
tions with Mexico, President Arthur appointed him Commis- 
sioner to negotiate a treaty of commerce with that country. 
Romero was appropriately designated by the Mexican Gov- 
ernment to meet him, and the two were thus associated in a 
work conceived in the fairest spirit to both countries, and 
which both believed would result in large benefits to the 
United States and Mexico. The treaty, however, met with 
opposition from parties in each country who thought their 
own prospects would not be benefited by the prosperity of all. 
Accusations were made of personal and illicit advantages 
sought by both Grant and Romero, which both repudiated. 
Indeed it is within my personal knowledge that the ap- 
pointment of Commissioner was unexpected to Grant, and 
for a while he hesitated whether to accept or refuse the 
position. His relations with Arthur were not agreeable at 
the time ; lie was displeased with the President's course, and 
had criticized his Administration free!}-. lie always thought 
the offer was made to please or placate him at a time when 
he was indignant at other actions of the President. He 
accepted the appointment from public motives purely. 

The Government, however, showed scanty interest in the 
treaty, and exerted itself only feebly to procure its continua- 
tion, while the opposition from interested quarters was 
persistent ; General Grant himself had no longer power 
or patronage to exert or offer to stimulate support, and the 



GRANT AND ROMERO. og 7 

treaty never became international law. Its failure was a 
source of disappointment and mortification to Grant. He 
was pained to find that his influence was so insufficient and 
his views so unimportant with those who controlled affairs ; 
and that neither the weight of his past services nor the 
gravity of his arguments, enforced by so wide and varied an 
experience, could bring his country to approve the policy 
that he proposed. He had many notions in regard to an 
American system on the American continent which one 
would suppose would have attracted the approbation both of 
statesmen and the country. His desire to increase the influ- 
ence of the United States, to extend her territory, and to 
develop relations with all the sister republics was incessant : 
but the time seemed not ripe. He was not destined to 
achieve so much additional renown as the inauguration of a 
Continental policy would have insured. It was enough for 
one man to play the most important part in the salvation and 
reconstruction of the Union. But in the future, when some 
other statesman shall elaborate and carry out his views and 
accomplish the unity of relation and interest of all the 
American republics, it should be remembered that Grant 
foresaw the result and was anxious to bring it about in 
his time. Those who belittle his statesmanship will then, 
perhaps, recognize its far-reaching character and lofty in- 
tentions. 

In all this Continental policy Romero was the worthy 
colleague of Grant. No diplomatist has ever been accredited 
to this country who established more intimate relations with 
the important personages of the State ; who appreciated bet- 
ter the national institutions and character ; who played 
the legitimate role of a foreign minister with greater skill 
or success. For he had everything against him ; even 
for a while, it seemed, the indifference of our own State 
Department, certainly the listlessness of the people, the 
antipathy of race, and the difference of creed and language. 



393 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



But he conquered some of these prejudices first in Grant 
himself, and then with Grant's aid was able to do a great 
work for his own country and to attempt the binding of the 
two republics with closer ligaments of mutual prosperity. 

When General Grant fell into misfortune and for a while 
even his good name was assailed in many mouths, when he 
was tortured by the apprehension of absolute want, and 
hosts of rich and powerful and intimate friends of his pros- 
perous hours forgot to enquire if he needed money — the 
man of another race was the first and almost the only one to 
offer pecuniary assistance. Those who had benefited by 
Grant's success — not only the men who like the whole 
country owed the existence of their wealth to the triumph 
of his arms, but others whose individual advancement and 
fortune were directly traceable to their connection with him 
— neglected to say, "General, can we help you?" But 
Romero, the Mexican, came to him at once and insisted on 
lending him a thousand dollars. If he had not so insisted, 
General Grant would have suffered for want of money. 

After this their relations became almost tender. Grant 
accepted the temporary assistance, and was grateful. Romero 
was much with him in the last summer the General spent at 
Long Branch, and when Grant became seriously ill, Romero 
was one of the first to whom he confided his situation. 
After this the latter was frequently by the side of the friend 
of his nation. He sat quietly by the sufferer for hours, 
anxious to indicate his sympathy, and Grant was always 
pleased to have him there. Romero even visited the dying 
General at Mount McGregor, and in the midst of his suffer- 
ings and anxieties the hero turned from his pains or his liter- 
ary labor, to write when he could not talk, on Mexican affairs, 
and to manifest his interest even then in that country for 
which they had striven so earnestly together. 

The faithful diplomatist followed his great coadjutor in 
the procession that conveyed the remains of Grant to their 



GRANT AND ROMERO. ogg 

last resting-place at Riverside. Nothing in the entire and 
varied story of the soldier-President is more characteristic, 
although exceptional, than this friendship begun in public and 
international affairs, continued into a personal intimacy, and 
lasting through disasters and successes alike unexampled in 
American history, down to the moment when the great shadow 
fell that divides in one moment the closest friends and leaves 
of the warmest affection nothing but a memory. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 

GENERAL GRANT'S friendships were like everything 
else in his life — various in character and result, some- 
times adding to his dignity and happiness and renown, some- 
times unfortunate in the last degree. He was the friend of 
General Sherman and of Ferdinand Ward, of Dr. Newman 
and Hamilton Fish, of George Child and the King of Siam, 
of Rawlins, Belknap, Babcock, Sheridan ; of a man named 
llillyer, now forgotten, and of Abraham Lincoln; of Roscoe 
Conklin, Fitz-John Porter and John A. Logan. 

Many of his early friendships were not with distinguished 
people, but the manner in which he adhered to these was 
characteristic of the man, and explains some of the circum- 
stances in his career that have been most criticised. Grant, 
as every one knows, stepped very low in his fortunes after 
leaving the army. He bought a farm, but did not succeed in 
farming ; he cut wood and drove it to St. Louis ; he tried 
collecting money ; he sought petty office and failed to obtain 
it ; and altogether was more unsuccessful than most men 
who have had the advantages of education and position which 
a graduate of West Point enjoys. Yet at this time he must 
have displayed some very lovable qualities ; for among the 
ordinary men with whom he associated there were mam- who 
did him kindnesses. 1 [illyer was especially able, and willing, 
to befriend him; he lent him small sums of money; and 
others stuck to him when the world looked askant. 

In Galena a year or two later his friends were also numer- 

(400) 



GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 4QI 

ous, though he was still obscure. They were themselves of 
the plainer Western sort, but not like some of those whose 
company he fell into at St. Louis. They, perhaps, had not 
the opportunity to do him the same service ; indeed, at this 
period he did not need the same assistance, for he had become 
a clerk for his father and brother, with the prospect of part- 
nership in a somewhat prosperous business. 

Earlier than these associations of St. Louis and Galena 
was his army life ; not perhaps very different from that led 
by most young soldiers at that time, in California, Oregon, 
Mexico, among the Indians, and on the Canada frontier. As 
an army officer he was of course thrown among the better 
class of citizens everywhere, and in the army itself he met 
most of the men who afterward became famous on the North- 
ern or Southern side in the great war. 

When Grant grew into fame and importance — after he 
had led the armies that destroyed the Rebellion, when he 
became prominent as an almost certain candidate for the 
Presidency — most of these earlier associates of every sort 
revived, or sought to revive, their relations with him. Some 
of his firmest friendships were with his former West Point 
comrades. Though he was absolutely free from the pedantry 
of West Point, I have never known a man whose associations 
there affected afterward his relations with men more remark- 
ably. A chum at the Academy, a tent-mate in Louisiana or 
Mexico, always had a claim upon him that he recognized. 
He preferred West Point men as soldiers, he loved them as 
friends. Whether it was prejudice or partiality, or what not, 
he thought higher even of Sherman and Sheridan because 
they were graduates of the Academy; and all through the 
war and afterward men like Ingalls and Wallen and Dent had 
peculiar relations with him because of this earlier intimacy. 
Some richly deserved the retention of the tie ; others not at 
all ; but whether they deserved it or not the camaraderie of 
the cadet life and of camp lasted with Grant to the end. In 
26 



402 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the concluding months of his life General Tower, whom he 
had seldom met during the war, and not very often afterward, 
went to his house and discussed the Mexican campaigns, and 
Grant at once mellowed toward him in an unusual way. 

The St. Louis friends of the inferior sort were among his 
worst enemies. These men traded deliberately on the little 
services they had been able to render him when he was in 
need ; they reminded him of those services, not always in 
words, but by their presence : sometimes they went further, 
to my knowledge, and he was not willing when he became 
prominent to turn his back on those who had befriended him 
in his adversity and obscurity. He did not say this in words, 
but it was very evident. Men and sometimes women came 
to him for benefits who did not deserve what they asked for, 
who did discredit to him and to the country if they were 
thrust into important positions ; but he refused to forget their 
former conduct, and unfortunately the association did not 
always prove creditable in his new position. There was a 
certain nobility in this gratitude, although it might perhaps 
have been better shown in another way. But he would not 
consent to thrust aside the people who once had done him 
kindnesses ; and they being mean, or being human, and 
discovering his feeling, availed themselves of it fully. 

I do not think, however, this was always gratitude in 
Grant, so much as a pride in not doing the ordinary ignoble 
thing of turning away in the hour of success from those 
whose friendship he had once been glad to claim. This he 
could not stoop to. The burden of the obligation seemed 
heavier in these instances than for far greater services ren- 
dered afterward. Later in his career he felt, I think, that the 
distinction of association with him and the benefits he was 
able to confer, compensated for any service his friends per- 
formed for him. He was glad to aid or advance his friends, 
as the world knows, but he was fully conscious of all the 
advantages or honors he bestowed. He never spoke of these ; 



GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. 40 ^ 

but in his inmost soul he felt the full weight of every obliga- 
tion he imposed, and after his greatness became conspicuous 
I am not sure that he thought what was done for him was 
any more than he deserved, whether from the country or from 
individual friends. Of course, he made no display of such a 
sentiment, and there are many who will not consider it a fault 
or even a failing in a man like him to be conscious of the 
importance of his own services, whether to the State or to 
his friends. 

Grant's friendships were divided and distributed in a very 
peculiar way. He had military friends, political friends, per- 
sonal friends, and did not confound the different varieties. 
He gave one man his entire confidence in one phase of life, 
but kept him utterly aloof in another. He used one man's 
qualities in a certain direction, but ignored them altogether 
in a different business. Sherman was certainly during the 
war his most intimate military friend, and very dear to him 
personally, but he and Sherman differed constantly on politi- 
cal subjects, sometimes almost to the brink of dispute. When 
the third term movement was at its height, Sherman refused 
to say one word in favor of Grant and thought Grant felt 
the silence ; yet neither Sherman's silence nor Grant's feeling 
affected their relations one particle. 

Then, Grant had political intimates who never got near to 
him at all as a man ; he acted with his Cabinet, he consulted 
them, he kept often from others the secrets he shared with 
these, but, except with Rawlins, he had no personal relations 
with any of them, such as he maintained with several other 
friends ; perhaps I should except Borie from this category ; 
and certainly Grant had a profound personal regard for Fish, 
but he never confided to his Secretary of State, details of 
intimate thought and feeling such as Rawlins and possibly 
Borie shared. Borie was very close to Grant personally. He 
played cards, and whoever of Grant's intimates did this, had 
a peculiar hold upon him. For cards had a singular fascina- 



404 GRANT IN PEACE. 

tion for him. He was extremely fond of all games in which 
skill and chance are combined ; perhaps they suggested war ; 
and when a man whom he liked in other affairs or for other 
reasons played with him, that man could become very intimate. 
But very few of his important or personal associates liked 
cards as he did ; so that most of his comrades at the whist 
or poker table were men to whom his political or military or 
personal secrets were unknown. The fellowship in one direc- 
tion was dropped entirely in another. 

I think that after the death of Rawlins I knew Grant as 
closely as any one except Mrs. Grant ; but there were whole 
phases of his life if not sides of his character that were 
rarely revealed to me ; some, it may be, I never learned. He 
never discussed his business relations with me, though I saw 
much of him in the years in which he was a business man. 
He used to tell me what enormous profits he drew as a 
member of "Grant & Ward " ; how rich he thought his son 
Ulysses had become ; how much money Ferdinand Ward 
was making ; but he never described the details or the 
ventures by which and in which the money was accumulated ; 
and I never asked. He even invited me to invest with the 
firm, and promised unusual interest, but how the interest 
was derived he did not disclose. We know now that he did 
not know himself ; but I thought it strange at the time that 
he was so reticent. I fancied he was silent because he 
doubted my business judgment. Alas ! if he had had more 
business judgment of his own there would have been no need 
for silence. 

So, too, there were many details of his family affairs of 
which I was unapprised. It is true I avoided the knowledge; 
after his sons became grown men I did not desire to intrude 
upon either their or his affairs, and even while I lived at his 
house and was working with him on his " Memoirs" I sought to 
keep aloof from the minutiae of his business and of that of his 
family. All mention of the Vanderbilt correspondence was 
thus at first withheld from me ; but finally the General him- 



GRANT AND HIS FRIENDS. ^ r 

self took me into his confidence on this subject, though the 
family very naturally had not desired to do so. 

There were, on the other hand, matters which he confided 
to me that he did not disclose to Mrs. Grant or to his sons, 
though at times I begged him to impart to them the intelli- 
gence which only I had shared ; but he still declined. He 
never, I believe, gave all his confidence on every subject to 
any human being. Of course, however, his wife and family 
and his closest friends saw more in him than he supposed 
they observed ; and perhaps discovered points in his charac- 
ter which were less apparent to himself than to those whose 
eyes were sharpened by affection and lifelong intercourse. 

But though General Grant had the apparent wisdom to 
select the side that he wished to show to any man, he was 
not always wise in selecting the individual to whom he 
showed it. The greatest mistakes in his career, the greatest 
misfortunes of his life, came from his mischoice of friends. 
He sometimes seemed to know men marvelously well ; he 
detected the aims and wishes and characters of many who 
were close or sought to be close associates ; but at other 
times he was absolutely blind to arts and traits that were 
apparent to many lookers on. Those who professed admira- 
tion and devotion could win their way very far, and some- 
times very easily with him ; and many of these used him for 
their own purposes and to his harm. Ferdinand Ward is, of 
course, the conspicuous example. I remember telling Horace 
Porter of the enormous sums that Grant thought he was 
making in business, and Porter, as a business man, replied 
that it was impossible to make them legitimately ; that there 
must be something wrong of which the General was ignorant. 
He told me afterward that he went once to Grant's house to 
warn him against Ward, whose conduct seemed to him 
dangerous if not suspicious, but that while he was there 
Ward was announced and the manner of the General to his 
partner was such that Porter, Grant's former secretary and 
aide-de-camp, did not feel warranted in uttering what he 



40 <5 GRANT IX PEACE. 

feared. It would probably have been useless to attempt to 
interfere. Mrs. Grant herself had her anxieties and suspi- 
cions in regard to Ward, but was unable to insinuate them. 
More than once, indeed, she cautioned General Grant against 
his intimates, but in vain. He was the most steadfast man 
imaginable when his friends were assailed. If this was a 
fault, how rare, how noble a failing ! 

Grant's friends or professed adherents often failed him. 
He lost many absolutely in his long career. Soldiers who 
had once served him, as well as the country and the cause, 
with hearty fidelity ; political champions, early followers, fell 
away. Others injured him more because they professed to 
adhere. His political career was blighted by those whom he 
sustained in evil report and good report ; his Presidency was 
less brilliant than it might have been because of the mistakes 
and misdeeds of others ; though there were some, doubtless, 
who suffered unjustly because ignominy cast on them 
reflected odium on Grant. His business fortunes of course 
were ruined by those whom he trusted absolutely. 

Yet Grant had also as stanch and loyal friends as any 
man in history; men who worked for him steadily, and 
sacrificed or subordinated their own interests to him and his 
fame. Of course it may be said that they were rewarded, for 
at one time he had the power to reward nearly every service 
that could be rendered him ; and who can say that service 
rendered to such a man is absolutely pure? But men have 
fallen away from others as great in station and power as he; 
and many adhered to Grant in his adversity. There were 
eras in his life when he needed all his friends and all their 
efforts; all through his military career, in the Johnson 
imbroglio, during his two Presidential terms, in the struggle 
for a third, in the frightful financial disaster toward the end, 
under the cloud that for a while threatened to obscure even 
his fame — God knows he needed friends, and he always 
found them as stanch as lie deserved. No man has such 
friends and keeps them unless he earns them. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 

I FIRST saw Grant at Nashville soon after the battle of 
Chattanooga ; his wife and his youngest child were with 
him, and this was typical of all I knew of him. It is hard 
for me to think of him apart from his family. All through 
the war, Mrs. Grant visited him whenever he remained for a 
while in a town, and even in the field she often shared his 
tent or cabin when the armies were not engaged in active 
operations. In 1877 I wrote to him asking for information 
in regard to her visits, for my history of his campaigns, and 
he answered from Paris : 

" I cannot give you definite information as to dates when Airs. 
Grant visited me at City Point. She went there, however, soon 
after my headquarters were established there. She returned to 
Burlington, N. J., after a short visit, to arrange for the children's 
schooling, and went back to City Point, where she remained with 
the exception of two short visits to New Jersey until Lee's sur- 
render and my return to the national Capital. Mrs. Grant made 
a short visit to me — the first time after leaving Cairo — at Cor- 
inth, next at Jackson, Tenn., then at Memphis, where I left her 
when I went to Young's Point, one or two days before running the 
Vicksburg batteries, and at Vicksburg after the surrender. She 
again visited me at Nashville." 

I venture to add what I wrote after this in my history. It 
was submitted to General Grant and read to his wife, and 
approved by both. Indeed, every line in my history was read 
by him before it finally went to the printer, and had his sanc- 

(407) 



408 GRANT IX PEACE. 

tion as completely as any portion of his more "Personal 

Memoirs." With this knowledge the following passage has 

a peculiar significance. It is what he was willing should be 
said to the world : 

" The wife of the Commander-in-Chief had often spent a few 
weeks with him in camp or siege or when he was quartered in a 
captured town. At Memphis, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Nashville, 
she had joined him, and now again in front of Petersburg. His 
children, too, visited him, the eldest only fourteen years of age at 
this time [1864], the youngest seven ; and the man who directed 
the destinies of armies, and was unalterable in his decisions when 
he believed them right, who ordered the devastation of the Valley 
of Virginia, and went unshrinking through the Wilderness cam- 
paign, was as bland and playful with his wife and children as the 
humblest soldier in the ranks before he went to war. All the 
simplicity and gentleness of his nature came out in this compan- 
ionship. He had been married sixteen years, and still seemed to 
find his greatest solace in the domestic relations, while, like a true 
woman, the wife was interested in whatever concerned him, anx- 
ious to relieve him from petty cares, proud of his success, but 
never trenching beyond her proper sphere, exercising all her 
woman's influence to soothe and support, never to vex, or annoy, 
or disturb." 

I have no word to withdraw from this picture now. It 
was written ten years ago, and I spent many hours in close 
companionship with its subjects afterward, in a still greater 
intimacy with each than I had then enjoyed. I saw them in 
all the pageantry of their European tour; I accompanied" 
them to palaces and arranged their imitations and their 
travels; I was with them in America amid the aspirations 
after a third term, in the defeat of those desires, and in the 
retirement to comparative privacy; I was their frequent 
guest both at Pong Branch and in New York. Mrs. Grant 
said to me more than once that the General wished me to 
consider his house one of my homes. I went to them in the 



GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 4 qq 

first distress after the failure of Grant & Ward, and I spent 
seven months under their roof in the last year of General 
Grant's existence, when the terrible shock of the cancer 
came, during the prolonged suspense, and when we all 
thought that the end had arrived; so that at the crises of 
their double life for nearly twenty years I was a witness, as 
close and intimate, when all the circumstances are consid- 
ered, as that life ever knew; and I venture — I trust without 
indelicacy, for General Grant's private life is a matter of 
importance to mankind — I venture to testify. 

There is nothing that the survivor should be unwilling to 
disclose or that I need shrink to reveal. No more beautiful 
domestic life can ever be known. General Grant's regard 
for his wife was constant, tender, true ; the worthy love of a 
worthy nature; trustful, absolute, unceasing; in great things 
and small anxious for the happiness of its object. He would 
do anything to gratify his wife in her merest fancy or most 
momentary whim; while, in important affairs, Mrs. Grant did 
not overstep the line which both perceived, though possibly 
neither ever indicated it to the other. She did not strive to 
affect or change her husband's judgment in matters of strat- 
egy or public policy. She never dreamed of influencing his 
military decisions or his political ones, except in regard to 
individuals. 

Like all women, she was full of personal feeling, but it 
was feeling about and for her husband. If she wanted a 
"man deposed or supported, it was because she believed him 
true or false to Grant ; and her instincts were sometimes 
nearer right than his judgment. She, of course, may have 
erred, but her motive was pure. In personal matters, up to 
a certain point, her influence was undoubtedly great ; but 
after the point was reached, even in personal matters, Grant 
was immovable. Mrs. Grant wanted many things done which 
she was unable to accomplish. There came times when the 
General distrusted her judgment, thought her prejudices or 



4io 



GRAXT IN PEACE. 



partialities affected her unreasonably, and then he did not 
yield, at least ever to do injustice. He may sometimes have 
gratified her by advancing a friend whom she favored higher 
than he would otherwise have done, but he also supported 
others whom he believed that Mrs. Grant unjustly dis- 
approved. He would not overthrow a man in whom he 
trusted, though there were occasions when it would have 
been better for him had she succeeded. 

In greater than personal matters she always simply urged 
him to follow his own judgment and conscience. I know of 
more than one instance when political or other important 
influences were brought to bear, and almost warped his judg- 
ment, and she simply but strongly advised him to do what he 
thought right, and perhaps induced him to do it ; though he, 
as little as any man, I believe, required such inducement. 

Mrs. Grant shared many of her husband's secrets, but not 
all ; and never those of others which were meant for him" 
alone. He more than once spoke to me of matters which he 
said he had not disclosed to her. He used to say, to tease 
her, that after his first election to the Presidency, he had to 
get up in the night and examine the waistcoat he had put 
under his pillow, lest she should have discovered the list of 
his Cabinet that he kept in the pocket. But this was only to 
tease her ; he had as much confidence in his wife as any man 
that ever lived. In nearly every letter he wrote to me, he 
sent a message from her, who was indeed my faithful friend 
He read to her every page of my history that I used to send 
him in advance, and many a time has he written that she_ 
commended lines about which he would only say, "They are 
so personal that I can make no comment." She shared his 
interest in my work and his approval of its character. 

In the first years of my intercourse with Grant I was 
greatly impressed with this influence of his wife, and the 
impression deepened until the last. Nobody can understand 
his character or career who fails to appreciate this; no one 



GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 4II 

who did not know him intimately can ever say how much 
Mrs. Grant helped him ; how she comforted him, and enabled 
him to perform his task, which, without that help and solace, 
I sometimes thought might never have been performed. She 
deserved of the country all the honor and deference it ever 
paid her, and all the comforts it ever bestowed. She soothed 
him when cares oppressed him, she supported him when even 
he was downcast (though he told so few) ; she served him 
and nerved him at times when he needed all she did for him. 

But in those early years during the war and the first 
portion of his Presidency, indeed during all the period in 
which General Grant achieved his greatness, his children 
were only playmates and objects of affection for him. They 
were too young to understand his efforts and duties and anxie- 
ties. Jesse, the only one whom I ever saw much with him 
in the field, was a child of only seven years, a toy, a delight 
to his father, and of course was cherished deeply, but that 
was all ; the others were at school ; he hardly saw them, and 
when he did, of course they could not influence his action or 
^perceive its object or results. In Washington, all through 
the terrible anxieties of the Andrew Johnson time, they were 
still children. He was fond of them, but he did not then 
impress me as more tender than many other fathers, though 
deficient in no parental duty or sentiment. 

I left his side after the first months of his Presidency, 
"and saw little of him for the next seven years, but I met all 
of his children in Europe — the daughter first. She was then 
just seventeen, the sweetest, most natural, most delightful of 
_American maidens. She was received almost as a princess in 
England. General Schenck was American Minister at London 
at the time, and he determined that the daughter of the Presi- 
dent should be treated with respect according to English 
rules. He called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs and 
announced that the daughter of the President of the United 
States had arrived in London. In a day or two the Foj 



4 i2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Secretary replied that the Lord Chamberlain had informed 
him Her Majesty would be happy to receive Miss Grant at a 
private audience at Buckingham Palace, together with the 
lady who accompanied her, and the Minister of the United 
States. 

Now "Nellie Grant," as the country called her, had been 
sent abroad by her mother to take her out of the way of half- 
grown admirers ; she had never worn a long gown in her life 
till she arrived in England, but as the President's daughter 
she was the object of a very natural attention. Mr. Borie, 
Grant's former Secretary of the Navy, was sailing for Europe 
with his wife, and Mrs. Grant requested Mrs. Borie to take 
"Nellie" with her. It was a great favor on Mrs. Borie's 
part, but she was happy to consent. She thought, however, 
that she was to take a schoolgirl, and she found she had 
a half-fledged princess on her hands. She did not want 
to go to Buckingham Palace, and inquired if the daughters of 
the Minister could not accompany Miss Grant. But the 
Queen had not invited those young ladies, and they could 
not propose themselves. Then, too, Mrs. Borie had no gown 
to wear to court, but this difficulty was overcome, and she 
went to the palace, like a lady "in attendance" on the little 
girl she had expected to chaperone. 

I gave Mademoiselle a garden party while she was in 
London and was delighted with her ease and self-possession. 
She stood by my side ami smiled with democratic grace 
on duchesses and marchionesses as they made her the same 
curtesy they made to royalty ; for the higher their own rank 
the more profound the prostration they performed. 

On the return voyage, the young lad)' met her fate. Mr. 
and Mrs. Borie were both ill and kept their staterooms while 
Miss Nellie remained on deck. There she fell in with a 
young Englishman, Algernon Sartoris, and before they 
reached America the mischief had been done that she was 
sent to Europe to avoid. "Nellie Grant" was engaged — 



GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 



413 



and to an Englishman. Sartoris told me how he asked 
General Grant for the young lady's hand. With all the awe 
of an Englishman for the Head of a State, he was invited to 
dinner at the White House, knowing what was expected 
of him. After dinner the President led the way to the 
billiard-room and offered him a cigar. "Then," said Sartoris. 
" I knew my time had come. I waited and hoped the Presi- 
dent would help me, but not a word did he say. He sat 
silent, looking at me. I hesitated,-and fidgetted, and coughed, 
and thought I should sink through the floor. Finally, I 
exclaimed in desperation — ' Mr. President, I want to marry 
your daughter.' " It took a bold man to say that to General 
Grant, but doubtless the boldness recommended him, for 
Sartoris carried away the prize. 

His mother, Adelaide Kemble Sartoris, said something to 
me once which, as she is no longer living, I may repeat; 
it shows the English notions so completely. I paid the 
young couple a visit soon after their marriage. They were 
living with the father of Sartoris, in the south of England ; 
and one afternoon when the pair were together in the garden, 
for the honeymoon lasted a long while, Mrs. Sartoris, the 
elder, was telling me how much she liked her daughter-in-law. 
"Nellie is not at all bumptious," she said. "Soon after her 
arrival we were making five o'clock tea, and Nellie asked 
to help. I consented, of course, and she exclaimed : ' I never 
made tea before in my life.' " Then Mrs. Sartoris gravely 
remarked, " It had not occurred to me before, but of course 
a President's daughter had never made tea ! " I said, " Cer- 
tainly not ! I suppose she had never before made tea " ; but 
I didn't explain that five o'clock tea was unknown in America 
at that time. I was not going to take down my princess a 

P e g- 

Another of General Grant's children visited England 

while I was there. "Buck," as we called Ulysses junior, 

was a law clerk in New York, and went to London with one 



^4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

of the firm with whom he was studying. The lawyer had 
business in England and took Ulysses to do the copying, but 
when they arrived he was worse off than Mrs. Borie. The 
son of the President and "the gentleman who accompanied 
him " were invited everywhere. When they drove out " Mr. 
Grant" was put on the front seat, and "the gentleman" 
behind ; when they were announced at dinners and parties in 
English fashion, it was Mr. Grant who preceded ; and their 
real relations were reversed in the most ridiculous manner. 
I was having a holiday at the time, and they took my house 
off my hands for a month or two. They went about a great 
deal in London, I was told, and were both more than popular, 
and " the gentleman who accompanied Mr. Grant " made the 
most of his opportunities. 

But all this passed away. The children of General Grant 
had their day. Then came sorrow and humiliation. Every 
one knows that the beloved chief went into business and was 
wronged ; that he and his lost their all ; that the sense of his 
disgrace rather than the loss of fortune, struck to the soul 
the man who had been honored by the world. The long and 
terrible story has been told. The nation is familiar with it. 
And then in the sorrow that was worse than a cancer, 
General Grant clung to his family. Then I — and I believe 
even they — first fully discovered how dear they were to him. 
His love for his wife remained what it had always been ; all 
that the love of a husband could be for the partner of his 
greatness and his poverty, his joys and his griefs, during 
more than thirty years ; a beautiful spectacle of domestic 
affection in as great and striking vicissitudes as earth can 
ever know. But the passion for his children was now 
developed into something exceptional and almost unreason- 
ing. He admired the talent of his sons as if it had been 
extraordinary; he declared Ulysses had a marvelous business 
capacity; that Colonel Grant was fit to command armies; 
that Jesse was a mathematical genius. All the world knows 



GRANT IN HIS FAMILY. 415 

how he labored for them after he had been given up for dead ; 
how he revived to struggle on their account. His passion 
was pathetic. It reached out almost from the grave toward 
those children for whom he was suffering. He never believed 
for a moment aught against their good name any more than 
against his own. He lived for them ; he died for them. 

All this was revealed in those last months of his existence, 
and I have no doubt the feeling was heightened by his ill- 
ness ; the protracted parting not only aggravated his sufferings 
but intensified his affection, until one was as harrowing as the 
other. He not only did not know until the last how profound 
his feeling was, but while he lingered, the feeling grew from 
day to day, as the cancer did, downward and inward into his 
nature, till at last it consumed him. At the end he forgot 
fame ; he was past even patriotism ; but his last glances and 
thoughts and heartbeats were for her with whom he had 
become one flesh, and for those who were bone of his bone. 
After his death a paper was found on his body addressed to 
his wife and containing his last injunctions to her regarding 
their children. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 

ON Christmas Eve, 1883, General Grant seemed to him- 
self and to the world a healthy and prosperous man. 
He was sixty-one years of age, full of mental vigor, and 
physically as strong, if not as active, as he had ever been. 
He was engaged in business that brought him in an ample 
income, and he told his intimate friends that he was worth a 
million of dollars. He passed that evening at the house of 
an acquaintance and went home in a cab about midnight. 
As he alighted he turned to hand the driver a fare, and in 
doing this his foot slipped on the ice, for the weather was 
7 cold and wet, and the rain froze on the pavement. He fell 
to the ground and was unable to rise. The driver got down 
from the box to assist him, but the General was suffering 
acutely, and the man was obliged to call for help from within 
doors. A servant came out, and General Grant was carried 
up the steps into his house, which he was never to leave 
again a well man. 

The family at the time consisted only of Mrs. Grant and 
a young niece, with the servants. Mrs. Grant was naturally 
very much alarmed, but the General declared that the injury 
was not serious, and although he was almost senseless from 
pain he refused to allow a medical man to be summoned. In 
the morning his son Ulysses, who lived near, was brought, 
and he at once sent for Dr. Fordyce Barker, the family phys- 
cian, who pronounced the case one that required, surgical 
treatment, and called in Dr. Lewis A. Stimson. The injury 

(416) 






M& 



FALLING ON THE ICE. 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT a X j 

was thought to be the rupture of a muscle in the upper part 
of the thigh, and although after the first few days the suffer- 
ing was less, any quick or sudden movement of the limb was 
so painful that the General was unable to move in his bed 
without assistance; he did not leave it for weeks. A few 
days after the fall he suffered an attack of pleurisy, which 
also at first occasioned excruciating pain, but was not abso- 
lutely dangerous. 

The effects of this accident detained General Grant in 
the house many weeks, but after a while he was able to 
hobble about on crutches, and in March he went, by the 
advice of his physicians, to Washington and Fortress Monroe. 
By this time his general health was greatly improved, but the 
weakness in his leg and hip continued, and the unusual con- 
finement somewhat affected his spirits, though not his temper 
or his intellect. He was the most patient of sufferers, the 
most equable of prisoners. Hosts of friends among the 
most distinguished people of the country gathered about him 
wherever he went, and their society, always one of his great- 
est delights, now cheered the tedium and allayed the suffer- 
ing of the invalid. In April he returned to New York and 
was able to drive his own horse and to attend army reunions. 
He went, however, to no private entertainments. His affairs 
seemed still very prosperous, and he hoped soon to recover 
entirely from the effects of his fall. 

I had been absent from the country during the winter, 
but returned late in April, and at once saw much of my old 
chief. I found him cheerful and uncomplaining, going to his 
office daily on business, interested in politics and affairs. 
The Presidential election was approaching, and although he 
never spoke of such a possibility, many of his political friends 
thought the prospect of his nomination very bright. Every 
day revealed apparently irreconcilable differences among the 
adherents of other candidates, and the party and the country, 
not a few believed, were turning again to him who had twice 
27 



4i8 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



been the Head of the State. He, however, responded to no 
such intimations, and never said even to his family that he 
desired or expected a return to public station. Any expres- 
sion that ever fell from him on the subject was to repress or 
repel the suggestion. He was resting from national cares, 
and in the unwonted enjoyment of a private competence. 
He told me that in December for the first time in his life he 
had a bank account from which he could draw as freely as he 
desired. He was generous in gifts to his children, but never 
luxurious in his personal habits. He had only two expenses 
of his own, — his horses and his cigars. 

When General Grant returned from Europe in 1S79, his 
entire fortune amounted to one hundred thousand dollars, 
and the income of this sum just paid his expenses at the 
hotel where he and Mrs. Grant occupied two rooms. He 
kept no carriage. Finding that he could not live in New 
York suitably to his position, he began to consider what 
other residence he should select or what means of support. 
His son Ulysses was engaged in the banking business with 
Ferdinand Ward and James D. Fish, and supposed he had 
accumulated four hundred thousand dollars. He offered to 
receive his father as a partner in his profits. General Grant 
would not consent to this, but proposed to invest his hundred 
thousand dollars in the business and become an actual part- 
ner. Ward and Fish concurred, and in 1880, General Grant 
was admitted as a special partner in the firm of " Grant and 
Ward." 

He was never, however, actively engaged in its affairs. 
lie lent his name and he gave his money, but others did the 
business. Ward in reality acted for the firm, made the 
investments, drew the cheques, received the deposits, and 
disposed of them. General Grant was assured that the 
investments were proper, and, utterly unaccustomed as he 
was to business, he inquired little further. Once or twice he 
thought he had reason to say that the firm must have no 




] 







THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^g 

dealings in Government contracts, and he said so promptly. 
He declared that his position as ex-President made it im- 
proper and impossible for a firm of which he was a member 
to have such dealings ; and Ward assured him that there were 
none. The apparent returns from the business were enor- 
mous, but General Grant knew that scores of bankers and 
brokers around him had made as rapid fortunes as he, and 
was not surprised. He put all his available capital into the 
bank, and induced many of his friends and relatives to invest 
or deposit with it. One of his sons was a partner, another 
had become an agent of the firm, and their father had all 
confidence in their integrity and capacity. 

But suddenly out of the clear sky came the thunderbolt. 
On Tuesday morning, the 6th of May, 1884, General Grant 
went from his house in Sixty-sixth street, supposing himself 
a millionaire. When he arrived at his place of business in 
Wall street he found that he was ruined. As he entered his 
office he was met by his son Ulysses, who said at once : 
*' Father, you had better go home. The bank has failed " ; 
but the General went in and waited awhile. I happened to 
visit him that day about noon, and found him alone. After a 
moment he said to me gravely enough, but calmly : " We are 
all ruined here." I was astounded at the news, and he con- 
tinued : " The bank has failed. Mr. Ward cannot be found. 
The securities are locked up in the safe, and he has the key. 
No one knows where he is." 

He could not at that time have known the event more 
than half an hour. In a few moments he got into a carriage 
and was driven home. He never returned to Wall street. 

The world knows that he gave up all that was his. The 
story of the debt to Mr. Vanderbilt into which he was 
inveigled is pitiful. Ferdinand Ward went to his house on 
Sunday the 4th of May and represented that the Marine 
Bank, where Grant and Ward had large deposits, was in 
danger, but that speedy assistance would enable it to over- 



. 20 GRANT IN PEACF 

come tne difficulty. The- assistance, however, must be 
immediate if they would save themselves. He urged General 
Grant to obtain at once a loan of $150,000 for this purpose ; 
and Sunday though it was, the old warrior sallied out at the 
instance of the partner, who knew at that moment that all 
the fortunes of General Grant had been lost through his 
means. He went first to Mr. Victor Newcomb, who was not 
at home, and then to William H. Vanderbilt, who at once 
agreed to let General Grant have his cheque for $150,000 
without security. He said that he had never done such a 
thing before, but he would do it for General Grant. The 
General expected to return the money immediately ; he 
wanted it only to enable the Marine Bank to find time to col- 
lect its loans. Ward had assured him, and he repeated to 
Vanderbilt, that there were securities for more than a million 
of dollars in the vaults of Grant and Ward. 

The first thing General Grant did when the failure was 
known was to make over all his individual property to 
Vanderbilt. In this act Mrs. Grant afterwards joined, waiv- 
ing her right of dower. The house in which they lived 
belonged to Mrs. Grant. Three years before a hundred 
thousand dollars had been subscribed to purchase her a home, 
and the building in Sixty-sixth street was selected; but there 
was a mortgage on the property which the holders refused to 
cancel. It was a good investment, and they preferred to 
rel dn it. The price of the house was 598,000, and the 
mortgage was for 550,000 ; so $48,000 only was paid, and the 
remainder of the sum subscribed was deposited with Grant 
and Ward, to be applied to the purchase of bonds. Ward, as 
the active member of the firm, was commissioned to make 
the purchase. He reported having done .so, he received the 
money, and the interest was regularly paid. But after the 
failure it was discovered that the purchase had never been 
made. There was therefore a mortgage on the property 
which could not be redeemed. The library and the rare con- 
tents of the house were, however, made over to Vanderbilt. 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. a 2 \ 

But this was not all. The Trust Fund of #250,000 raised 
for General Grant, the interest of which was devoted to his 
benefit, had been invested in the bonds of a company which 
at this juncture suspended payment. The fund was guar- 
anteed by the E. D. Morgan estate, but from some tech- 
nicality of the law the guarantors could not pay the deficient 
interest until the company had been six months in default ; 
this resource therefore failed entirely for the time. The last 
payment had been deposited with Grant and Ward, and of 
course was lost. 

General Grant was as brave, however, as under all cir- 
cumstances, and though regretting the loss of fortune for 
himself and his sons, as well as for those who had suffered 
through their means, he was as yet free from any acute 
humiliation. He himself was ruined; one son was a partner 
in the wreck and the liabilities ; another the agent of the 
firm, was bankrupt for half a million ; his youngest son on 
the 3d of May had deposited all his means, about $80,000, in 
the bank of his father and brother, and the bank suspended 
payment on the 6th ; his daughter had made a little invest- 
ment of $12,000 with the firm ; one sister had put in $5,000, 
another $25,000; a nephew had invested a few thousands, 
the savings of a clerkship ; and other personal friends had 
been induced by Grant's name and advice to invest still more 
largely. It was painful and mortifying that all these should 
lose from their confidence in him, but still there was no 
thought of personal disgrace. 

But after a day or two came out the shameful story of 
craft and guile in all its horrible proportions, and it was 
that his honored name had been used to entice and decoy 
hosts of friends and acquaintances, to their own injur;, 
General Grant's discredit. Imputations were even cast on 
the fame that belonged to the country; and this blow was 
the most terrible that General Grant ever endured. The 
shock of battle was less tremendous, the mortal agony was 
less acute. 



422 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



There seemed, too, under the circumstances, to be noth- 
ing to do, nothing to say. He was indeed through life 
always able to remain silent, but the task was harder now 
than amid the abuse directed against him during the war, or 
the detraction and calumnies of political campaigns. His 
own fair fame, his honor as a man, the honor of his children, 
— all were assailed; all discussed, doubted, defiled by the 
tongues of a careless and censorious world. The glory 
which had been likened to that of Washington was obscured. 
He never spoke of this even to those closest and dearest, 
but none the less they knew that the wound was eating into 
his soul. This sorrow was a cancer indeed. 

After a time the clouds were lifted a little, and the world 
seemed satisfied, at least in part, that his honor was untar- 
nished. He breathed freer now; but still the accusations 
were hurled against his children; and for him, for whom the 
family relations were absolutely the profoundest and most 
intimate of his nature, this was anguish intolerable. 

His bodily health was soon affected, though not yet 
conspicuously. He did not grow openly worse, but he 
ceased to grow better. His lameness did not mend. His 
strength did not increase. He was not morose, but hardly 
so cheerful as was his wont, although too brave to be willing 
to seem cast down. But he was indignant to the core at 
those who had injured him and his fame and his sons. 

At first he was distressed even for money for household 
expenses. Eighty dollars in his pocket-book' and one hun- 
dred and thirty dollars in cash belonging to Mrs. Grant were 
all he had to live on. If two friends, one a man he had 
never seen and the other a foreigner, had not come to his 
relief, General Grant must have suffered actual want for a 
while. The very cheques paid out to tradesmen a few days 
before the failure were dishonored. lie was penniless in the 
house that was crowded with his trophies. 

But lour days after the 6th of May, an unknown country- 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. , 2 ^ 

man, Mr. Charles Wood, of Lansingburg, New York, wrote 
to General Grant and offered to lend him $r,ooo on his note 
for twelve months, without interest, with the option of 
renewal at the same rate. He inclosed a cheque for $500, 
"on account," he said, "of my share for services ending 
April, 1865," and General Grant gratefully accepted the offer. 

About the same time Mathias Romero, the Mexican 
Minister, his valued friend from the time when the French 
were driven from Mexico, came on from Washington, and 
insisted on lending him $1,000. At first the General 
declined the offer, but Romero suddenly quitted the room, 
leaving his cheque for $1,000 on the table. But for these 
succors the man who had dined with half the kings of the 
earth would have wanted money to buy bread for himself and 
his children. 

For it was not only himself and Mrs. Grant who were to 
be supported, but two of his sons and their families. Ulysses 
went to live with his father-in-law, the Hon. J. B. Chaffee, 
who was a man of means ; but General Grant must maintain 
the others, for, until released by their creditors, they could 
not even go into business. Mrs. Grant, however, owned two 
little houses in Washington, and she wrote at once to Mr. 
W. McLean, of Cincinnati, who she knew was buying 
property at the capital. McLean was a stanch personal 
friend of General Grant, although a political opponent, and 
Mrs. Grant asked him at this crisis to purchase her houses, 
telling him that she needed money for the absolute living 
expenses of the family. McLean at once directed his agent 
to purchase the houses, whether they were needed or not, 
and to pay the market price. This timely act relieved the 
family from their immediate anxieties. The generous loan 
of Romero was repaid ; the dishonored cheques for house- 
hold expenses were redeemed, and enough was left to live on 
during the summer. 

As early as December 1883, the editors of The Century 



424 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

Magazine had informed me of a series of articles they were 
planning about the civil war, and asked whether I could not 
induce General Grant "to contribute either direct or through 
my assistance a paper, say on Shiloh or the Wilderness." 
I laid the matter before the General, but he was disinclined to 
attempt the unfamiliar task. The editors, however, renewed 
their solicitations. After the failure of Grant and Ward they 
addressed me another letter, in which they said: "The coun- 
try looks with so much regret and sympathy upon General 
Grant's misfortune that it would gladly welcome the an- 
nouncement and especially the publication of material relat- 
ing to him or by him, concerning a part of his honored 
career in which every one takes pride. It would be glad," 
they continued, " to have its attention diverted from his 
present troubles, and no doubt such diversion of his own 
mind would be welcome to him." 

He was touched by the tone of the communication, but 
shrank at first from presenting himself to the public at this 
juncture, preferring absolute withdrawal and retirement. 
When I conveyed his reply, I spoke of the complete financial 
ruin that had overtaken him. The editors at once inquired 
whether a pecuniary inducement might not have weight, and 
made him an offer through me for two articles on any of his 
battles which he might select as themes. His necessities 
decided him. The modern Belisarius did not mean to besr. 

o 

In June he went to Long Branch for the summer, and 
soon afterward sent for me and showed me a few pages he 
had written and called an article. The fragment was terse 
and clear, of course, like almost everything he wrote, but too 
laconic and compact, I knew, to suit the editorial purpose ; it 
would not have filled three pages of the magazine. I begged 
him to expand it. 

" But why write more ? " he asked. " I have told the story. 
What more is there to say ? " 

I urged him to go into detail, to explain his purposes and 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 425 

movements, to describe the commanders, to give pictures of 
the country ; and he seized the idea, and developed the sketch 
into a more protracted effort. It was copied by his eldest 
son, who carried it to the editors, one of whom came at once to 
see General Grant, and asked for more. What the General had 
given was so good that it made them greedy and they be 
him to extend his article, suggesting one or two points for 
further treatment. He consented, and the paper became the 
elaborate one — elaborate for its author — which appeared in 
The Century for February, 1885. This was General Grant's 
first attempt at anything like literary or historical composition. 

He at once became interested in the work. The occupa- 
tion distracted him from the contemplation of his misfortunes, 
and the thoughts of his old companions and campaigns 
brought back pleasanter recollections. He agreed to prepare 
still another article. His first theme had been the battle of 
Shiloh ; the second was the Vicksburg Campaign. If he had 
been too concise at the start, he was now inclined to be more 
than full, and covered two hundred pages of manuscript in a 
few weeks. As soon as it became known that he had begun 
to write, the story spread that he was preparing his " Memoirs," 
and half the prominent publishers in the country made him 
offers. Ag-ain he sent for me, and said he felt inclined to 
write a book ; but that as my own history of his campaigns 
had been composed with his concurrence, and with the expec- 
tation that it would take the place of all he would have to say 
on the subject, he thought it right to consult me. He wanted 
also to employ the material I had collected and arranged in 
my work, and to use it as authority for figures and for such 
facts as his own memory would not supply. Besides this, he 
wanted my assistance in various ways ; all of which was 
arranged. In October I went to live at his house, to help 
him in the preparation of his book. 

At this time he seemed in tolerable health. He was 
crippled and unable to move without crutches, but he walked 



42 5 GRANT IN PEACE. 

out alone, and he had driven me once or twice at Long Branch 
behind his own horse. He gave up driving, however, after 
his return to town. But he was cheerful ; his children and 
grandchildren were a great solace to him ; many friends came 
in to see him and to testify their undiminished respect. His 
evenings were spent in their society at his own house, for he 
never visited again; and his days were devoted to his literary 
labor. He worked often five, and six, and sometimes even 
seven hours a day, and he was a man not inclined to sedentary 
occupation. By October he thought he had completed his 
articles on Shiloh and Vicksburg, and had begun the prepara- 
tion of two others on the Chattanooga and Wilderness Cam- 
paigns. These four he had promised to The Century Maga- 
zine, but he intended to incorporate them afterward, with 
some modifications, into his " Memoirs." To this the editors 
agreed. Thus General Grant's book grew out of his articles 
for The Century. 

In October he complained constantly of pains in his 
throat. He had suffered during the summer from the same 
cause, but paid no attention to the symptoms until toward 
the end of his stay at Long Branch, when Dr. Da Costa of 
Philadelphia, who was paying him a call, examined his throat. 
This gentleman urged General Grant to consult the most 
eminent physicians immediately on his return to New York. 
But General Grant never nursed himself, and it was nearly a 
month before he acted on the advice. His pains finally 
became so frequent and so acute that Mrs. Grant persuaded 
him to see Dr. Fordyce Barker, who instantly said if the case 
were his own or that of one of his family, he should consult 
Dr. J. H. Douglas ; and General Grant went the same day to 
Dr. Douglas. This was on the 226! of October. 

When he returned he said the physician had told him that 
his throat was affected by a complaint with a cancerous tend- 
ency. He seemed serious but not alarmed, though it was 
afterward learned that he had pressed Dr. Douglas for close 






THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 



427 



information, and had detected a greater apprehension on the 
part of the physician than the family at first discovered. 
Still there was disquietude and even alarm, — the terrible 
word cancer was itself almost a knell. 

It was now November, and all through this month he 
went regularly to the physician's house, about two miles from 
his own, taking the street-car. At first he went alone, but 
after a while he was persuaded to take a man-servant with 
him. One or two of the family called on Dr. Douglas to 
make further inquiry, and the response awakened further so- 
licitude. The pains did not decrease, and the extraction of 
four teeth greatly aggravated his nervous condition. He 
went to a dentist to have one tooth taken out, but his forti- 
tude was such that the operator was doubtless deceived, and 
proposed the extraction of three others, and the shock to the 
General's system was one from which he did not recover for 
weeks. 

As the weather became colder the disease was further 
aggravated by the exposure to which he was subjected in the 
street-car ; yet for a long time he refused to go by the car- 
riage. Mrs. Grant and his children tried in vain to persuade 
him. One morning he announced his intention of going 
again in the cars. It was at breakfast, and I implored him 
not to do so. I declared he was taking his life in his hands 
and that he had no right to risk what was so precious to 
others. But he was obstinate, and I got up from the table 
very much agitated, and said I had rather he would stick a 
knife into me than have him go in the street-car. He was 
silent, but after a little he ordered the carriage. 

In December his pains became still more excruciating ; he 
could not swallow without torture, and his sufferings at table 
were intense. He was obliged to use liquid food and to avoid 
acids altogether. I shall always recall his figure as he sat at 
the head of the table, his head bowed over his plate, his mouth 
set grimly, his features clinched in the endeavor to conceal 



42 g GRANT IN PEACE. 

the expression of pain, especially from Mrs. Grant, who sat at 
the other end. He no longer carved or helped the family, 
and at last was often obliged to leave before the meal was 
over, pacing the hall or the adjoining library in his agony. 

At this time he said to me that he had no desire to live if 
he was not to recover. He preferred death at once to linger- 
ing, hopeless disease. He made the same remark to several 
of his family. For a while he seemed to lose, not courage, 
yet a little of his hope, almost of his grip on life. He did 
not care to write, nor even to talk ; he made little physical 
effort, and often sat for hours propped up in his chair, with 
his hands clasped, looking at the blank wall before him, 
silent, contemplating the future ; not alarmed, but solemn, at 
the prospect of pain and disease, and only death at the end. 
It was like a man gazing into his open grave. He was in no 
way dismayed, but the sight was to me the most appalling I 
have ever witnessed: — the conqueror looking at his inevita- 
ble conqueror; the stern soldier to whom so many armies 
had surrendered, watching the approach of that enemy before 
whom even he must yield. 

But his apathy was not long-lived ; the indifference to his 
work was soon over. I had been used for twenty years to 
speak to him with the greatest freedom, although only at 
rare intervals. He was not a man whom any one could 
approach unless he permitted, but there came moments and 
crises when he allowed me to say things to him such as few 
men ever say to each other ; and I ventured now to beg him 
to throw aside this strange depression — the result of his 
illness ; to be himself ; not to give way, even to fate. I 
urged him to try to recover ; not to let the world say that he 
was crushed by misfortune, or put an end to by Ferdinand 
Ward ; to think of the immense achievement his book would 
he it he could himself tell the story of his own motives and 
purposes and plans. I pleaded with him to live and work, 
not only for his fame, but for his family, whose fortune his 






- 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 



429 



book would secure. He did not say much, from which I 
knew that my words would be considered ; I was sure that 
he appreciated their motive and did not resent their freedom. 
The only utterance I can recall in reply was, " I am not 
going to commit suicide." But I changed the subject and 
he spoke cheerfully and very kindly to me on other themes. 
We were driving together from the doctor's house when this 
conversation occurred, and on our return he went to work 
with renewed vigor. I told Mrs. Grant what I meant to 
do in advance, and reported the result afterward, and she 
approved it all. 

He enjoyed his labors now, and quite got the literary 
fever for a while. He liked to have his pages read aloud to 
the family in the evening, so that he might hear how they 
sounded and receive their comments. He worked, however, 
for the most part from ten or eleven o'clock in the morning 
until two or three in the afternoon, and sometimes again 
later in the day. Once in a while General Tower, a comrade 
in the Mexican War, came in and discussed the chapters 
describing the capture of Vera Cruz or the march on Mexico. 
Sometimes Mr. Chaffee listened to the political passages, and 
begged the General not to emasculate them, but to say all he 
thought without fear or favor. 

Daily about one o'clock he was interrupted by his grand- 
children, who stopped as they passed to their lunch, and 
looked in at the open door, not entering till he saw them and 
summoned them. Their prattle and kisses were always 
welcome, and made me think that the very misfortune which 
brought them to his house had its compensations. He took 
a peculiar pleasure in their society, and when at one time it 
was thought that they disturbed his labors, and they were 
told not to visit him, he was distressed at the omission and 
revoked the order. They came, indeed, like a burst of light 
into the sick man's study, three of them, dancing, gamboling, 
laughing — as pretty a brood of merry, graceful grandchil- 



430 GRANT IN PEACE. 

dren as ever a conqueror claimed for descendants, or looked 
upon to perpetuate his name. Those were happy months, at 
times, despite the anxiety, until the anxiety became despair. 
For although the doctors had warned the family, there was 
yet hope of arresting, if not of curing, the disease, and a pos- 
sibility of arresting it for years. His constitution was good ; 
he came of a long-lived stock ; and his nerve and will were 
what all the world knows. So there was hope ; not with so 
much foundation as could have been desired, but still there 
was hope. 

I shall never forget the frolic with the little ones on 
Christmas Day. They all came to dinner, and the two 
youngest sat one on each side of him. He was compara- 
tively free from pain at that time ; indeed, for a month or 
more the excruciating tortures came only at intervals ; and 
on this day he took his own place at the head of the table. 
The babies were allowed to talk as much as they pleased, and 
they pleased a great deal. They monopolized the conversa- 
tion, and when their mammas endeavored to check them, the 
General interposed and declared that this was their day. So 
they prattled across their grandpapa, and made preposterous 
attempts at jokes in their broken English, at which every- 
body laughed, and no one more heartily than the great 
warrior, their progenitor. It was a delicious morsel of sweet 
in the midst of so much bitter care, a gleam of satisfaction 
in the gloom of that sad winter, with its fears, and certain- 
ties, and sorrows. 

No one, indeed, can understand the character of General 
Grant who does not know the strength of his regard for his 
children. It was like the passion of a wild beast for its cubs, 
or the love of a mother for a sucking child, — instinctive, 
unreasoning, overweening; yet, what everyone can compre- 
hend and appreciate; natural, ami in this grim veteran touch- 
ing in the extreme. He not only thought his sons able, 
wise, and pure ; he had a trust in them that was absolute 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ l 

and childlike ; his affection even clouded his judgment and 
turned appreciation into admiration. For them he would 
have sacrificed fortune, or ease, or even Ids fame ; for them 
he did endure criticism and censure, and underwent physical 
fatigue and pain. He rose from his death-bed to work for 
them, and when he thought he was dying his utterances were 
about his "boys." This feeling, lavished on his own chil- 
dren, reached over to theirs. No parent ever enveloped his 
entire progeny in a more comprehensive or closer regard ; 
none ever felt them more absolutely a part of himself, his 
own offspring, the issue of his reins. 

By the last of the year the editors of The Century 
had received three of his articles for their magazine and 
announced them for publication. A large increase in their 
sales had followed, and the editors, thinking at least a part of 
this due to his name, sent him in December a cheque for 
one thousand dollars more than they had stipulated. Gen- 
eral Grant at first intended to divide this sum as a Christ- 
mas present between his two daughters-in-law living in the 
house with him. The amount would have been very accept- 
able to those ladies, but almost immediately he remembered 
the debt to Mr. Wood, his benefactor of the ioth of May, 
and inclosed his cheque for a thousand dollars to that friend 
whom he never saw, stating that the money was the result 
of his first earnings in literature. Still later General Grant 
received from The Century another thousand dollars in 
addition to the sum stipulated for the fourth article. This 
cheque was the last he ever endorsed, and the payment, 
beyond his expectations, gave him in the last week of his 
life the satisfaction of knowing that his literary efforts had 
a high market value. 

About Christmas the pecuniary troubles became more 
complicated. There was a possibility of some small creditors 
of Grant and Ward attempting to levy on the famous swords 
and presents he had received from Congress and the States 



432 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



and foreign potentates and cities. In order to save them 
Mr. Vanderbilt proposed to enforce his prior claim. Talk of 
this got abroad and was misunderstood. 

At this juncture General Sherman was in New York, and 
of course visited his old chief and comrade. I went to 
call on him the next day, and he asked me about the possibil- 
ity of any annoyance to General Grant on this score. He 
was extremely anxious, and declared : " Grant must not be 
allowed to suffer this new disgrace." He would share his 
own income rather. I did not feel at liberty to tell what 
I knew, even to him, and General Sherman's talk in New 
York, Philadelphia, and Washington excited a great and 
general sympathy. The result was that a number of General 
Grant's friends, with Cyrus W. Field at their head, began to 
raise a fund to save the hero from this last indignity. A 
hundred thousand dollars were to be subscribed to pay off the 
debt to Vanderbilt, who it was supposed would compromise 
his claim for that amount. 

But General Grant was weary of the repeated efforts to 
aid him. Congress had failed to place him on the retired list. 
A bill for this purpose had indeed passed the Senate at 
the preceding session, but President Arthur, it was known, 
would veto it, in order to preserve his consistency, having 
vetoed another intended to restore General Fitz-John Porter 
to the army. He forgot, apparently, that the cases were 
different. General Grant himself said: "I have not been 
court-martialed." Mr. Arthur proposed, it is true, a pension, 
but this Grant indignantly declined to receive. He disliked 
to appear to apply for public or private charity, and wrote 
now to Mr. Vanderbilt, informing him of the well-meant 
efforts in his behalf, but declaring that he preferred not to 
avail himself of them. He requested Vanderbilt to exercise 
his legal rights and offer for sale the whole of General 
Grant's property in his hands, including the presents and 
trophies >>( peace and war. lie did not feel at liberty to 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 433 

thwart the intentions of his other friends without the sanc- 
tion of Mr. Vanderbilt, as their efforts would enable him to 
cancel his debt to Mr. Vanderbilt, but he preferred that the 
debt should be paid by the sale of the property, not by a 
new subscription. 

Then came the correspondence which has been given to 
the world : first the munificent offer of Vanderbilt to make 
over all the property to Mrs. Grant, only providing that the 
presents should be held in trust during her life and that 
of the General, to be afterward transferred to the Govern- 
ment, as souvenirs of the glory which is national ; then the 
letter from General Grant, accepting the offer so far as it 
concerned the disposition of the presents, but declining to 
receive the return of the property ; the persistent pressure of 
the great millionaire ; the acceptance of Grant under this 
pressure ; Mrs. Grant's letter of an hour afterward recalling 
the acceptance, written, of course, with Grant's sanction, but 
signed by Mrs. Grant to save the General from the appear- 
ance of discourtesy ; and the final abandonment of every par- 
ticle of property he had in the world, to satisfy a debt in- 
curred at the instance and through the outrageous falsity 
and guile of a monster in craft, who selected the people's 
hero as his victim and his decoy ; the abandonment of the 
property, and the surrender — harder still — of those monu- 
ments to his fame which his deeds had won ; surrendered, 
it is true, to the nation, which will guard them sacredly, as 
it will the fame of which they are the symbol and the seal. 

All this wore on the frame torn by disease and the spirit 
racked by imputations, thrown off, it is true, but some of 
which still rankled, like poisoned arrows, that wound though 
they are extracted ; all this told on that body which had 
endured so many sleepless nights and prolonged marches, 
which had suffered fatigue and hunger and watchings, and 
that soul which had withstood cares and responsibilities and 
torturing anxieties such as have fallen to the lot of no other 
28 



434 



GRAXT IX TEACE. 



man in our time ; for no other bore on his single shoulders 
the weight of the destiny of a great nation at the very crisis 
of its history ; no other stood before the enemy and the 
country and the world as the incarnation of the hopes and 
fears and efforts of a people waiting to be saved. These 
labors, endured long before, told now, and made him less able 
to withstand the shocks of fortune and of nature, and he 
gradually succumbed. 

When the extent of General Grant's humiliation became a 
common story, when it was disclosed to the world that the 
house in which he lived was no longer his own, that his books 
and furniture were held on sufferance, that he was stripped 
even of the insignia of his fame, while he seemed neglected 
and forgotten in his adversity by the nation he had done 
so much to save, then even his stout heart gave way. All 
his symptoms were aggravated ; his pains increased, the 
appalling depression of spirit returned, and more than all, the 
exhaustion of his strength — far greater than the disease 
alone could at this stage have produced — occasioned the 
physicians as well as the family the most painful solicitude. 
Dr. Barker and Dr. Douglas had as yet retained the case 
exclusively in their own hands. They had never deceived the 
family, but said from the beginning that the disease was 
epithelial cancer ; that it might be arrested, but they had 
never known it cured. Neither Mrs. Grant nor the General 
had been told so much, although both of course knew that 
the case was critical, and both were undoubtedly anxious. 
What General Grant in his heart feared or expected he said 
to no human being; not his wife nor his children penetrated 
to -the inner sanctuary where his soul contemplated its fate 
and balanced the chances of life and death alone. But the 
gravity of his manner and the dejection of his nevertheless 
intrepid spirit indicated too plainly that he felt how great was 
his danger. 

In January he ceased to visit his physician. Dr. Douglas 






THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 435 

now came to the patient daily, and after a while twice in the 
twenty-four hours. The visits of Dr. Barker were twice a 
week. The physicians had always agreed perfectly as to the 
nature of the malady and its treatment, and now were agreed 
in their alarm at its progress. In fact the earlier stages were 
past. The phases followed each other with ominous rapidity. 
The pains in the throat had become lancinating and sharp, 
the infiltration extended further and further, the cancer was 
eating into the delicate and vital tissues, and the end seemed 
in sight. This relapse could be traced directly to its cause, 
— it was the fresh revelation of his misfortunes, the loss of 
his honors, the publicity of his humiliation that kindled anew 
the fatal fires of the disease. 

At this juncture the physicians determined to call in other 
eminent men in their profession. Dr. H. B. Sands and Dr. 
T. M. Markoe were requested to make a minute examination 
with the others, after which a general consultation was held. 
The conclusion was not immediately communicated to the 
family, but enough was said to confirm their gravest appre- 
hensions, and no announcement whatever was made either to 
the General or to Mrs. Grant. At the same time a piece of 
the affected tissue was cut off and submitted to Dr. G. R. 
Elliott, an expert with the microscope, who, after careful 
preparation and examination, not knowing the name of the 
patient on whose case he was to pronounce, declared, as all 
the others had done, that the indications of the fatal disease 
were unmistakable. The verdict of science was that a 
malignant cancer had seized on the system and was hope- 
lessly ravaging the strength and vitality of the sufferer. 
General Grant was doomed. All that could be done was, not 
to stay the progress of the destroyer, but to alleviate the 
tortures that were imminent. This apprehension of ap- 
proaching and inevitable agony was keener with the physi- 
cians than they were willing to betray ; but their gloomy 
manner and guarded words told in spite of them what they 
were anxious to conceal. 



4 ^g GRANT IN PEACE. 

Within a day or two after this consultation a statement was 
made in a medical journal, apparently by authority, that General 
Grant was improving, that the disease was not unquestion- 
ably cancer, and that care and good fortune might even yet 
bring about recovery. Mrs. Grant first saw this statement, 
and naturally supposed it to be the official report of the 
consultation. She read it to the General, who, like herself, 
was greatly relieved. The effect upon his spirits was imme- 
diate and evident. He spoke of the report to the family as 
if it was decisive, and even mentioned it to the physicians. 
But this publication was a version of what had been said 
long before, at a time when a peculiar phase of the com- 
plaint gave ground for favorable vaticinations, and when it 
was thought wise not to alarm the public mind for fear of 
the reaction upon the patient. The delusion was cruel, for 
it was destined to be dissipated. No utterances of the 
press, even appearing to emanate from his immediate medi- 
cal attendants, could conceal from General Grant for more 
than a day or two the fact that he was rapidly failing. His 
own sufferings, his extreme prostration, the redoubled care 
and attention of his physicians, — all combined to disclose to 
him the reality. 

Almost immediately after this publication a second an- 
nouncement was made in the newspapers, this one divulging 
the exact truth, which the family had not yet communicated in 
its fullness to their most intimate friends, or hardly admitted 
in words to themselves. How this statement became public 
was not discovered, but it mattered little now, for the bitter 
verity could no longer be withheld. When friends and 
reporters came instantly to inquire, the sons admitted the 
danger of their father, as well as the anxieties and distress 
of the family. These utterances were at once published, 
and were read by General Grant. He doubtless then for the 
first time became convinced of his condition, and of the 
extent of the solicitude of his children. Airs. Grant also 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 437 

at this time first realized what were the fears of the family. 
Her disappointment was sharp, coming after the elation of 
the last few hours, and General Grant himself, it was evi- 
dent, felt the shock profoundly. No one spoke to him on 
the subject, nor did he mention it to any one, but he acted 
like a condemned man. He had no thought before, I believe, 
that he might not live years, although ill, and with a terrible 
shadow hanging over him. That his days were numbered 
was an intimation for which he was not prepared. 

He was, I am sure, unwilling to die covered with the 
cloud of misfortune. On this subject also he was silent to 
every human being, but the thought added bitterness to his 
agony. I knew it, as well as if he had told me. It could 
not indeed but be hard for him who had led the armies of 
his country to repeated victory, who had received more sur- 
renders than any other conqueror in history, who for eight 
years had sat in the chair of Washington, and whose great- 
ness had been sealed by the verdict of the world, to leave 
his children bankrupt, their faith questioned, their name, 
which was his, tarnished — that name which must live for- 
ever. The blur on his reputation, even with the taint of 
dishonor entirely removed, the wreck of his fortune, the 
neglect of the Government, the humiliations of his poverty, 
— these stern images hovered around his couch by night 
and day, and goaded and galled him till the moment when 
physical torture crowded out even mental pain. 

The country received the news of his condition with 
grief and consternation. Whatever had been said or thought 
injurious to him was instantly ignored, revoked, stamped out 
of mind ; under the black shadow of Death the memory of 
his great services became vivid once more, like writing in 
sympathetic ink before a fire. All the admiration and love 
of the days immediately after the war returned. The house 
was thronged with visitors, old friends, army comrades, for- 
mer cabinet ministers, senators, generals, diplomatists, on 



4 ^3 GRANT IN PEACE. 

errands of inquiry or commiseration. A hundred letters and 
telegrams arrived each day, with pity and affection in every 
line. The soldiers all over the country were conspicuous in 
their manifestations of sympathy — Southerners as well as 
Northerners. Army clubs and loyal leagues sent messages 
incessantly. Meetings of former Confederates were held to 
signify their sorrow. The sons of Robert E. Lee and Albert 
Sidney Johnston were among the first to proffer good wishes 
to him whom their fathers had fought. Political opponents 
were as outspoken as partisan friends, and the bitterest 
enemies of General Grant in the daily press were generous 
and constant in the expression of their interest. Rivals in 
the army like Buell and Rosecrans made known that the 
calamity which impended over the nation was a sorrow for 
them, because they were Americans. Mr. Jefferson Davis 
more than once uttered kind words which were conveyed to 
the sufferer. The new Secretary of War of the Democratic 
administration called in person ; the new Secretary of State 
sent remedies and good wishes. The new President dis- 
patched the Marshal of the District of Columbia from 
Washington to make inquiries. Ex-President Hayes and 
ex-Secretary Lincoln had called long before. State legisla- 
tures voted their commiseration; the Queen of England 
telegraphed her condolences, and little children from all 
parts of the country sent constant messages of affection and 
tributes of flowers. 

But no sympathy could check the progress of the pale 
rider who bears his summons with impartial footsteps to 
the hovels of the poor and the palaces of the great. The 
malady made incessant advance. The terrible darting pains 
increased in intensity. Another medical attendant, Dr. G. F. 
Shrady, was called in to assist and relieve Dr. Douglas. The 
great fear of the physicians now was of the horrible cancer- 
ous pains. They said repeatedly that a speedy termination 
of the disease was to be desired. If pneumonia or some 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 43Q 

other quick-ending complaint could carry off the patient in a 
week, it would be cause for gratitude. This sickening appre- 
hension of coming physical torment aggravated the expecta- 
tion of bereavement and left nothing lacking to the intensity 
of the calamity. 

Yet it seemed to me after the first shock that General 
Grant still had not given up. His unconquerable nature 
rebounded. He looked at the physicians with an anxiety that 
could not have been so acute unless the possibility of hope 
had been mingled. He submitted to every operation, he 
carefully attended to every injunction, and sustained the long 
siege of disease with the same determination and tenacity 
he had displayed in other sieges and campaigns with other 
enemies. But now he was on the defensive, — it was the 
first time. 

Meanwhile his article on Shiloh had appeared in The 
Century Magazine, and the influx of letters and criticisms 
from friends and opponents excited his interest for a while. 
The greeting offered to his first contribution to written 
history showed that the world stood ready to receive his 
story from himself, but even this thought could not arrest 
the rapid concentration of his attention on bodily ailings and 
failing powers. The strifes of battle and the contests of 
history sounded distant and dull to ears that were deadened 
with the ever present sense of pain, and even the imposing 
fabric of his fame looked shadowy and unsubstantial to eyes 
about to close forever on the glories and honors of this 
world. 

As soon as General Grant's condition became known an 
attempt was made in Congress to revive the measure for 
restoring him to the army. Since the bill which had already 
passed the Senate and was actually before the House of 
Representatives would be vetoed by the President, Senator 
Edmunds introduced another, with the view of obviating 
Mr. Arthur's objections. This was rapidly passed by the 



440 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

Senate and sent to the other House. There it was taken up 
by Mr. Randall, the Democratic leader, who in conjunction 
with General Grant's personal and political friends, and 
many Democrats and Southern soldiers, made every effort 
to secure its success. Most of the Democrats, however, 
opposed it. They were anxious to pass the earlier bill, and 
thus force the President either to reverse his previous action 
in the Porter case or veto the bill in favor of General Grant. 
The President allowed it to be known that he would not re- 
cede from his position ; Congress must pass the bill that he 
wished, for he would veto the other. 

On Sunday morning, the 15 th of February, Mr. Cyrus 
W. Field, who had been incessant in his efforts in the press 
and in private to secure the passage of the bill, came to Gen- 
eral Grant's house and asked for me. He said if a deter- 
mined effort were made by General Grant's friends, he 
thought the bill might be passed the next day ; and asked 
me to go to see whoever I thought would have influence. I 
told the General of the visit. He was gratified at the interest 
of his friends, but would give me no advice, and I sallied out 
and spent the day in his service. I found Mr. Hamilton 
Fish, General Grant's old Secretary of State. Mr. Evarts, 
who had just been elected Senator, and General Horace 
Porter, my former comrade on General Grant's staff. All 
were willing and earnest ; all wrote letters at once to reach 
members of Congress the next day, and Porter went with me 
to visit others who we thought might help us. But Monday 
came and the bill was called up and lost. 

General Grant felt the rebuff acutely. Though he had 
made no demonstration of anxiety in advance, those who saw 
most of him and had learned to interpret the few and faint 
indications he ever gave of his personal preferences and 
desires, knew how eagerly he had hoped, how cruelly he was 
disappointed. He had indeed looked to this bill as in some 
sort a reparation of the injury his reputation had sustained ; 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 



441 



as an official vindication, an intimation that the country still 
believed in him and regarded his fame, had not forgotten his 
services. When the reparation was withheld he suffered 
proportionally. 

But he refused to reveal his emotion. A day or two 
before the decision he declared that he did not expect the 
passage of the bill ; and when the defeat was announced he 
made no remark. That evening he played cards with his 
family and displayed unusual spirit and gayety ; but all saw 
through the mask. All joined, however, in the deception 
that deceived no one. None spoke of the disappointment ; 
and a grim interest in whist apparently absorbed the party 
that was heart-broken for him who permitted neither wife nor 
child to come beneath the cloak that concealed his wound. 
All he said was that the bill had failed on the 16th of Feb- 
ruary, the anniversary of the fall of Fort Donelson. 

The next day he was worse, and in a week the gravest 
fears seemed near realization. He himself appeared con- 
scious of the approach of the end. He had all winter been 
considering and discussing the choice of a publisher for his 
book, but had made no decision. Now he came to a conclu- 
sion, and in the first week in March the agreement was 
signed with his publishers, Messrs. C. L. Webster & Co. 

At the same time the family thought they could no longer 
withhold from his daughter, Mrs. Sartoris, the knowledge of 
her father's condition. She was in England, and they had of 
course notified her of his illness, but, in the hope of amelio- 
ration or respite, had deferred the announcement of its criti- 
cal character. But at last they wrote and urged her to hasten 
to him. After his second relapse thev telegraphed, and she 
started for his bedside. They were still unwilling to inform 
General Grant that she had been summoned, lest he should 
be depressed by the certainty that they believed the end to 
be near ; they only told him she had written to say that she 
was coming ; but the amiable concealment hardly deceived 



442 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



him. Though his spirit was broken, his exhaustion extreme, 
his mind depressed, and certainly at this time weakened, he 
knew too well why she was coming ; but he asked nothing 
and said nothing. 

The decay of his energy was to me more distressing than 
any other symptom. For the inroads extended beyond 
physical strength ; they reached at last mental power, and 
even that nerve and force which made the great character the 
world has recognized. To one who had studied him for half 
a lifetime, it was acute pain to watch his strength give way, 
the light of his intellect flicker and fade, the great qualities 
all apparently crumble. To see General Grant listless, inca- 
pable of effort, indifferent to work, absorbed in physical needs 
and pains, — a sick man in soul as well as in body, — was 
hardest of all. 

The interest of the country still followed him, and, as the 
disease proceeded, became still more intense. The physicians 
now sent out daily bulletins, and crowds of people watched 
the boards where these were published. His friends deter- 
mined that still another effort should be made in Congress to 
pass some bill for his retirement ; but he felt little interest in 
the measure now, — the languor had reached his heart. 

For many weeks he had been unable to go down stairs to 
his meals or to receive a friend, and had spent his days in the 
room which, before his illness became so acute, he had used 
as a study. Here his papers still remained, and once in a 
great while he even yet attempted to write a page ; but alas ! 
it was not like what he had once been able to write. Some- 
times I tried to catch an idea and took it down from his lips, 
reading it afterward to him to verify it. But these opportu- 
nities became rarer and rarer ; he had no longer strength for 
the effort, no longer interest in his work, and at last aban- 
doned all idea of being able to finish it. 

Then his sleeping-room was changed. Mrs. Grant gave 
up hers at the front of the house to him, and took that which 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 443 

he had occupied at the rear, so that his bed-chamber might 
be next to his sitting-room. At first he objected to the 
change, but soon his strength was so far gone that he recog- 
nized the need. The two great chairs in which for months 
he had sat, leaning back in one with his feet in the other, 
were taken into that room in which all now thought he 
would die. Still, he walked almost daily into the apartment 
where he had spent so many hours during the winter. 

Meanwhile the efforts to pass the bill for his retirement 
continued. This one Mr. Arthur would sign. It had passed 
the Senate, and Mr. Randall, General Slocum, and other 
prominent Democrats wrote to General Grant's family and 
friends that the final result would be favorable. Mr. Ran- 
dall had greater power in the matter than any one else, his 
party being in the majority, and no one was more earnest than 
he. But General Grant remained indifferent, and this time 
his indifference was real. He was absorbed in his sufferings, 
and believed the bill would be of no use to him now. His 
family, too, cared little for success, save as it might soothe or 
possibly brighten his last hours. The doctors thought it 
might possibly revive his spirits and prolong his days ; but 
why, some thought, prolong his sufferings ? 

Finally, on the morning of the 4th of March, almost in 
the last moments of the expiring Congress, the bill was taken 
up by unanimous consent in the House of Representatives, 
and passed at once amid great cheering. The President, as 
usual at the close of the session, was in a chamber at the 
Capitol, waiting to sign such bills as had been left to the last 
moment, and must fail unless they instantly receive his sig- 
nature. He signed the bill. A nomination had been made 
out in advance and was sent at once to the Senate. There 
lacked but a few moments of the hour when Congress would 
cease to exist ; but Senator Edmunds, the presiding officer, 
announced a message from the President ; all other business 
was suspended, and the nomination was confirmed amid 
tumultuous applause from the galleries. 



444 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



President Cleveland signed the commission ; it was the 
second act of his administration. The news was telegraphed 
to General Grant by numerous friends, and the same day the 
adjutant-general of the army notified him officially of his 
appointment. General Grant wrote the telegram of accept- 
ance in his own hand. He was again in the army which he 
had so often led to victory. It seemed indeed preposterous 
that any difficulty should have been made about admitting 
him to that army of which he had been the most illustrious 
member. 

But the recognition came too late. He was gratified and 
cheered, but the hand of fate had fallen, and could not be 
removed. There was no revival of his strength, no reaction 
from his depression, no cessation of his pain. The exhaus- 
tion went on. 

Nevertheless his restoration to the army, though it could 
neither bring back his health nor prolong his days, made a 
deeper impression on him than he was willing to betray. 
When the end of the month came this was apparent. All 
officers of the army are required to make a monthly report 
of their post-office address to the adjutant-general. I do not 
remember that this report was ever made by him as General- 
in-Chief, at least after his headquarters were removed from 
the field ; but now he was extremely anxious to make it, and 
filled out the form himself, though with extreme difficulty. 
It was a question at the time whether he would live through 
the clay, and it was strange to read the language required by 
the regulations : " My post-office address for the ensuing 
month will be" — 3 East Sixty-sixth street, New York. 

He was still more eager to draw his pay. It seemed as if 
he looked upon these two circumstances as the seal of his 
return to the army. No young lieutenant expecting his 
stipend for the first time could have been more anxious. He 
sent for his pay-accounts before the time, and when signed 
they were forwarded to the paymaster, so that on the day 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 445 

when the first month's pay was due the cheque was handed 
him. At first he insisted that one of his sons should go at 
once to the bank to have the cheque cashed ; he wanted to 
handle the money. But at this juncture his sons were 
unwilling to leave the house even for an hour, and he finally 
consented that Mr. Chaffee should draw the money. When it 
was handed him he divided it among Mrs. Grant and his 
children, saying it was all he had to leave them. This was 
on the 31st of March, when he was expecting to die within 
forty-eight hours. 

During the month of March his daughter arrived, and 
although, of course, her coming was a solace, yet he knew 
too well by this time that she had come to see him die. The 
gathering of other friends also had significance. He ceased 
now to leave his room except at rarest intervals. One phy- 
sician always slept in the house. 

His suffering at last became so poignant that anodynes, 
the use of which had long been postponed, were indispensa- 
ble. The pain was not of that violent character which had 
been so sorely dreaded, and which the progress of the disease 
did not even yet induce ; it was rather an intolerable nervous- 
ness, as unlike as possible the ordinary phlegmatic calm of 
General Grant, — a physical excitement and an excessive 
sleeplessness, combined with a weakness that was spasmodic. 
These sensations were the cause of a consuming wretched- 
ness, but they were not cancerous pains. The physicians 
constantly declared that although the cancer was making 
irresistible advance, it was not the cancer that produced the 
exhaustion and the nervousness, which, unless arrested, would 
bring about death very soon. It was only too plain that the 
mental, moral disease was killing General Grant, — it was the 
blow which had struck him to the dust and humiliated him 
before the world, from which he could not recover. He who 
was thought so stolid, so strong, so undemonstrative, was 
dying for a sentiment — because of the injury to his fame, 
the aspersions on his honor. 



446 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

This, now, every one recognized. Every one now admitted 
his purity, and contended for his honor which it was said was 
the country's. If the universal affection and regard which 
were showered on him could have salved his wounds he misrht 
have been cured, but the recognition and reparation were in 
vain. He who had passed unscathed through Shiloli and the 
Wilderness was stricken by a weapon more fatal than the 
rebels ever wielded ; he who had recovered from the attacks 
of political assailants and resisted the calumnies of partisan 
campaigns was succumbing under the result of the machina- 
tions of one man. 

Still, the sympathy soothed his mortal anguish and cast a 
gleam of consolation into his dying chamber. It seemed to 
change and soften his spirit. His indignation at former 
enemies was mollified by their protestations of pity; the 
bitterness he had once felt for them was converted into grat- 
itude for their compassionate utterings. The very fire of his 
nature seemed quenched by the cold shadows of impending- 
dissolution/ Now, also, an unfamiliar tenderness appeared, 
which had been long concealed. The depths of his affection 
were disclosed ; he was willing to express more of his inti- 
mate feeling than ever before. It was a new man, a n< w 
Grant in these matters that was revealed, as if the husks 
were torn aside and the sweet kernel given to those from 
whom it had been so long withheld. All who approached him 
intimately at this time recognized this uncloaking of certain 
parts of his nature which hitherto had been so carefully 
veiled. 

But one more struggle, one more fierce battle remained. 
He had yet to justify himself, to say in person what he had 
never yet said to the world, of his relations with "Grant and 
Ward," to tell himself the story of the deceit which had 
brought him low. James D. Fish, one of the partners in the 
firm, was on trial, and General Grant's testimony was desira- 
ble. He was now so feeble that it was almost dangerous to 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 447 

subject him to the ordeal of an examination ; but yet to vin- 
dicate his fame, to allow him in his dying moments to utter 
his own defense, it was worth while incurring whatever dan- 
ger. His sons, especially, were anxious that he should say 
what no one else could ever say for him, and for them ; and 
although in his weak condition he did not appear to share 
their anxiety, he consented for their sake to make the effort. 

The examination was held in his bedchamber. The law- 
yers and the stenographer and one or two others were pres- 
ent. The ceremony of an oath was waived, with the consent 
of the opposing counsel, and the dying man answered all 
questions and told how he had been betrayed. As the in- 
quiry went on the old spirit of battle revived ; he felt all the 
importance of the occasion, roused himself for the effort, 
and made a definite declaration, damning in its evidence of 
the guilt of one man's action, absolute in the assertion of the 
purity of his own. 

In his testimony he spared neither Fish nor Ward; he 
felt that this was his last blow, and he dealt it hard. If he 
had died then, as it was almost feared he might, it would 
have been, not only like the old warrior of story, standing, 
but fighting to the last. He never relented in his bitterness 
to these two men. The harshest words I ever heard him 
speak were his frequent utterances, after he knew that he 
was doomed, in regard to them who had been the cause of 
his ruin, and, as he doubtless felt, of his end. These he 
never said that he forgave. 

The examination lasted nearly an hour. When it was 
over he did not at first appear more than usually exhausted. 
He never showed immediately the effects of any intense 
physical or mental strain. Not after his great disappoint- 
ment in February did his strength or spirit at once give way ; 
so now for a day or two he seemed no weaker than before. 

But in forty-eight hours he began to fail. He recognized 
himself the decrease of vital force, and believed it was the 



448 GRANT IX PEACE. 

beginning of the end. The physicians shared the belief. 
Two now remained constantly in the house. Anodynes were 
doubled, to control the excessive nervousness and to prevent 
the occurrence of the anticipated agonies. One of his sons 
was in his room continuously and the family were summoned 
more than once when he seemed in mortal peril. 

At this time General Grant had not lain in his bed for 
more than a few moments at a time in months ; a sensation 
of choking invariably attacked him in that position, and 
although the physicians assured him that there was no dan- 
ger of suffocation, the symptoms were so distressing that he 
could not be persuaded to take to his bed. He sat in one 
great chair, with his feet in another, propped up by pillows, 
usually wearing a dressing-gown, and his legs swathed in 
blankets. 

Dr. Newman, his most intimate clerical friend, was with 
him often now, and prayed with him, first at the request of 
Mrs. Grant, and afterward frequently at the request of Gen- 
eral Grant himself. His prayers had one quality in which 
they differed from any I ever heard in a dying chamber. 
He prayed for recovery, for strength, for the power of the 
Almighty to be manifested, for the Hand to be stretched out 
to save ; he prayed as the suffering in Scripture prayed to 
Christ, for instant, present, physical relief; for rescue, not for 
submission or resignation ; not for the alternatives of the 
other world, but that there and then, God would save and 
deliver General Grant. This was prayer to which every one 
of whatever faith could say "Amen." It certainly comforted 
and supported the sufferer and solaced for a while the family. 
General Grant liked those prayers, and I doubt not they did 
their part to revive his strength, to make him think recovery 
possible. They were a medicine to his drooping spirit, an 
anodyne to the excited, trembling heart, a stimulant at the 
moment when the pulse was failing and the breath fluttering. 

Very early in April I was ohliged to give up my room; 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^q 

after Mrs. Sartoris arrived, there was no other where the 
faithful medical attendants could rest in the intervals of their 
watchings. But I still spent my days at the house, and often 
remained for the night, lying where I could, or snatching 
sleep in a chair, with Dr. Newman or Chaffee or other inti- 
mate friends. 

One morning General Grant himself thought he was 
dying. The family were all summoned. He kissed each of 
them in turn, and when Mrs. Grant asked him to bless her 
he replied : " I bless you. I bless you all ! " After this he 
went lower and nearer death than ever before. The pulse 
was flickering like a candle, and the physicians said : " He is 
going." But there had been an injection of brandy pre- 
pared some days before, for just such emergencies, and one 
physician whispered to the other: "Now! the brandy." 
"Where is it?" "On the table." "Shall we use it? Is it 
worth while to bring him back to pain?" "Yes. Hold the 
Fort." And Dr. Shrady administered the brandy, which 
Dr. Douglas had prepared. It stimulated the nerves, it pro- 
duced another pulsation. The throbbings went on, and 
General Grant returned to the world he had almost quitted 
forever. 

Another morning I was at my hotel, having left the 
house after midnight. At about four o'clock I was wakened, 
and a note was handed me from Colonel Grant. It contained 
only the word "Come." I knew too well what this must 
mean, and hurried to the house. A hemorrhage had 
occurred. This was one of the contingencies that had 
always been foreseen, and it was supposed certainly would be 
fatal. Every one had been summoned. "What shall I 
say?" asked Colonel Grant, as he wrote the notes. "It 
makes no difference," said the doctor; "all will be over 
before they get here." But General Grant walked to the 
basin and helped to wash his throat, and the hemorrhage 
proved favorable instead of fatal. It was caused by the 
29 



,c GRANT IX PEACE. 

loosening of a slough that had formed over a part of the 
throat, and the slough in a day or two came entirely away, 
after which the cancer itself was eased, and indeed for a 
while arrested. The weakness, for some cause or by some 
means which I have never been able to understand, was to a 
certain extent overcome. The anodynes were lessened in 
quantity, and their injurious effects in part passed away. 
For several days General Grant seemed to hover between life 
and death, and then came a marvelous change. To the 
amazement of all, his strength returned and his spirits 
revived. At first he disbelieved in the amelioration. He 
had perhaps for one moment a glimmer of hope, but then the 
conviction overwhelmed him that recovery was impossible. 

At this crisis he did not wish to live. " The doctors are 
responsible three times," he said, "for my being alive, and — 
unless they can cure me — I don't thank them." He had no 
desire to go through the agony again. For, he had suffered 
death ; he had parted with his family ; he had undergone 
every physical pang that could have come had he died before 
the brandy was administered. 

It seemed to me then cruel to bring him back only to 
renew his torture ; for I had no idea, nor had any one else, 
that he would live more than a week, if so long. He had 
said more than once : " I have no regrets, except for leaving 
my family." But he was recalled, and from that time the 
apparent improvement went on. 

He still, however, for a few days remained unwilling to 
live- — -in pain; though always eager to be cured. lie was 
never afraid to die. Having disposed of his book and his 
affairs, these matters he considered settled; just as in battle, 
after giving an order, he never doubted, or wished to recall 
it. But the fighting spirit, the unconquerable nature, made 
him struggle still. The dejection which marks the disease, 
and which had been so appalling in January and February, 
did not return. In its stead a new phase came on. He was 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 451 

battling again, and this time harder than before, for the 
enemy was closer. He fairly grappled and wrestled now with 
Death. Once or twice his opponent got him down, but 
Grant arose almost stronger in his agony than the One who 
is stronger than us all. The terrible calm of the fight was 
exactly like the determination in the Wilderness or before 
Richmond, where I once heard him say: "I feel as sure of 
taking Richmond as I do of dying." There was no excite- 
ment, no hysterical grief or fear, but a steady effort of vital 
power, an impossibility for his spirit to be subdued. He was 
not resigned ; neither was he hopeful. He simply, because 
he could not help himself, made every effort to conquer. 
After every paroxysm of mortal faintness the indomitable 
soul revived, and aroused the physical part. 

I may not be thought to lift too far the veil from a dying 
chamber if I mention one circumstance which had for me a 
peculiar interest. During all of General Grant's illness, down 
to the hour when his partial recovery began, Mrs. Grant 
never could bring herself to believe that she was about to 
lose him. A woman with many of those singular premoni- 
tions and presentiments that amount almost to superstition, 
but which yet affect some of the strongest minds, and from 
which General Grant himself was certainly not entirely free, 
she declared always, even at the moment which every one 
else thought would prove the last, that she could not realize 
the imminence of the end. Her behavior was a mystery and 
a wonder to those who knew the depth of the tenderness and 
the abundance of the affection that she lavished on her great 
husband. Her calmness and self-control almost seemed cold- 
ness, only we knew that this was impossible. I did not 
presume, of course, to comment on this apparent stoicism, 
but once or twice she told me she could not despair; that 
there was a feeling constantly that this was not to be the 
last ; and even when she wept at the gifts and the words that 
were thought to be farewells, she was putting up prayers that 



452 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

were full of confidence, and after which the wonderful and 
unexpected recuperation occurred. 

All this while, the public interest was painful. So much 
of it penetrated into that house under the shadow of Death, 
that it seemed to us within as if the whole world was par- 
taking of our sorrow. All day through the half-closed 
shutters we could see the crowds waiting silently and 
solemnly for news of the beloved sufferer. Every one who 
left the house was instantly accosted, not only by profes- 
sional reporters, but by earnest and often weeping men and 
women, who had never known General Grant personally, but 
shared the feeling of the country in his behalf. 

To me there chanced to come peculiar indications of this 
feeling. Known to be an inmate of the house, and yet not so 
near as the nearest relatives, I could be approached by others 
on subjects which they shrank from broaching to the sons. 
General Grant belonged to the country as well as to his 
family, and the country would insist on doing him every 
honor when the final occasion came. Many public men 
endeavored to ascertain through me what would be the 
wishes of the family in regard to the disposition of the great 
dead ; and letters were sent to me to present at the fitting 
time, offering worthy sepulture. The people of the District 
of Columbia, through their representatives, declared their 
desire that the revered ashes should rest at the capital of the 
country, and the General-in-Chief of the army, the friend and 
follower of General Grant, sent proffers of a place for him at 
the Soldiers' Home, — a fitting spot for the last habitation 
of a soldier. The President of the United States sent a 
messenger from Washington to say that he would attend in 
person the august obsequies, and I was requested to commu- 
nicate in time the probabilities and the arrangements. All 
these sad secrets were to me especial signs of the universal 
grief that kept pace with the still more sacred sorrow which 
I saw ; but I was anxious not to intrude prematurely upon 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT 4-3 

the family the preparations for what seemed then inevitably 
at hand, and I bore about with me for weeks the knowledge, 
undisclosed, that armies and presidents were waiting to pay 
General Grant those honors which to himself would be for- 
ever unknown. 

On Easter Sunday he seemed a _ittle easier, though there 
was still no hope. I went into his room and found him able 
to listen and even to utter a few words without too much 
effort. I had been greatly struck by the universal watching 
of a nation, almost of a world, at his bedside, and especially 
by the sympathy from former rivals and political and even 
personal adversaries ; and I recounted to him instances of 
this magnanimous forgetfulness of old-time enmities. When 
I told him of the utterances of General Rosecrans and Jeffer- 
son Davis, he replied : " I am very glad to hear this. I 
would much rather have their good-will than their ill-will. I 
would rather have the good-will of any man than his ill-will." 

On the 3d of April several newspapers which had fol- 
lowed General Grant with a persistent animosity down to the 
very beginning of his illness, recalled in touching and even 
eloquent words that twenty years before he had captured 
Richmond on that day. I told this to my chief, for I had 
been with him on that other 3d of April. I said the nation 
was looking on now, watching his battle as it did then, and 
that his fight with disease was as good a one as that he had 
made with the rebels twenty years before. "Ah," he 
answered, " twenty years ago I had more to say. I was in 
command then." "But even then," I replied, "it took a 
year to win ; perhaps you may win still." He brightened up 
at this and told the physicians the story of General Ingalls's 
dog. Ingalls was the chief quartermaster of the armies 
operating against Richmond, and had been a classmate of 
General Grant at West Point ; they were always on intimate 
terms. He had a peculiar dog that often came about the 
camp-fire at headquarters. One day during the long siege 



4 5 4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

General Grant said, " Ingalls, do you mean to take that dog 
into Richmond?" "I think I shall," said Ingalls; "he 
belongs to a long lived breed." 

After this Dr. Shrady sat down to write the bulletin for 
the morning. 

"What shall I say, General?" he asked. "How shall I 
tell them you are this morning ? " 

"More comfortable," replied the General. 

And the doctor wrote a line about the physical condition 
of his patient, and read it to General Grant, who approved. 
I was still greatly impressed by the public emotion, and I 
interrupted : 

" General, why not say something about the sympathy of 
all the world, something to thank the people ? " 

" Yes," he exclaimed willingly, and dictated these words : 
" I am very much touched and grateful for the sympathy and 
interest manifested in me by my friends, and by — those who 
have not hitherto been regarded as friends." 

Toward the last he stammered and hesitated, evidently 
unwilling at this moment to call any one an enemy ; and 
finally made use of the circumlocution, — "Those who have 
not hitherto been regarded as friends." 

Dr. Shrady wrote out the bulletin, and read it aloud, 
when the General added : " I desire the good-will of all, 
whether heretofore friends or not." 

I urged the Doctor to stop just there, to say nothing 
about physical details, but give this Easter message from 
General Grant to the world in his own language. Mrs. 
Grant, however, wished the word " prayerful " to be used 
before "sympathy," and General Grant consented to the 
change. 

Another morning, only a day or two after his improve- 
ment began, he said to me, evidently with a purpose, that it 
was strange how undisturbed a man could be when so near 
death. He supposed he had been as near the other world as 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 455 

one could be and survive. His feeling at the time had been 
that every moment might be his last ; but he had not suf- 
fered one particle of apprehension, or fear, or even discom- 
posure. He evidently wished me to know this, for we had 
once or twice in the winter talked of religious beliefs. "Yet," 
he said, "at such a time it hurts no one to have lived a good 
life." He had been undisturbed, — he repeated this emphat- 
ically, — but he believed any one would be more comfortable 
at such a moment with a conscience that could not reproach 
him. A good life would certainly contribute to composure 
at the end. 

The 9th of April came, the anniversary of Appomattox, 
and recovery was still not assured. One of the sons had a 
presentiment that his father would not survive that day ; but 
it would have been hard to have General Grant surrender on 
the anniversary of his greatest victory. Then came another 
jubilee. His birthday was the 27th of April, and by this 
time he was so far restored as to be able to join the family 
for a while at dinner. There were sixty-three lighted candles 
on the table to celebrate the sixty-three years, which a month 
before no one had hoped would ever be completed, and the 
house was crowded with flowers, the gifts of thankful friends. 
By the first of May he was so well that he sent for a stenog- 
rapher, and began to dictate matter for his book. 

His strength, however, was intermittent, and the cancer 
soon began to make progress again. Nevertheless, one crisis 
was past. A new chapter in the disease was begun. He 
was able now to drive out, and dictated, and sometimes wrote, 
at intervals during the month of May and the earlier days of 
June. His interest in his work seemed keener than ever. 
It doubtless gave him strength to make a hew fight — a hope- 
less one, he felt before long, so far as recovery was con- 
cerned. Still, there was a respite, and this period, with his 
usual determination, he employed in the effort to complete 
his "Memoirs." 



456 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



The secret of this partial recovery is not far to find. It 
was after the great expression of public sympathy that Gen- 
eral Grant began to improve, after his place in the affections 
of the people was restored or resumed that his whole nature, 
moral and physical, became inspired and renovated. For 
this it was almost worth while to have suffered, — to have the 
world recognize his sensitiveness, and to receive himself its 
appreciation in return. Few men, indeed, have known in 
advance so nearly the verdict of posthumous fame. No death- 
bed was ever so illumined by the light of universal affection 
and admiration. Garfield had not the same claims on his 
countrymen, and the feeling for him was pity and indignant 
grief rather than gratitude or lofty enthusiasm; Lincoln 
knew nothing of the shock that went round the world at his 
assassination ; Washington lived before the telegraph ; and 
no European monarch or patriot was ever so universally rec- 
ognized in his last moments as a savior and hero as Grant. 
All this was borne in to him as he sat struggling with Death, 
and, like the giant of old, he received new strength from his 
contact with earth. The consciousness of a world for specta- 
tors might, indeed, nerve any combatant ; and when he found 
that the attacks on his fame were parried, the reproaches 
forgotten, his very mistakes lost sight of in the halo that 
enveloped him, he gathered himself up for a further contest. 
The physicians, doubtless, did their part, and nothing that 
science or devotion could suggest was withheld ; but neither 
science nor devotion expected or produced the resurrection 
and return of him whose very tomb had been prepared. It 
was the sense of humiliation that had stricken him and had 
more to do with his prostration than disease; and when this 
was removed, he rose from the embrace of the King of Ter- 
rors, and flung himself for a while into new toils and battles, 
and, though wounded and bleeding, refused to die. 

On the 1 6th of June he was removed to Mount McGregor, 
near Saratoga, where a cottage had been offered him by its 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 457 

owner, Mr. Joseph W. Drexel. His strength had so far 
lapsed that the physicians afterward declared he could not 
have lived a week longer in the heats and sultriness of New 
York. When the fatigues of the journey were over, how- 
ever, and there was time for the fresh and reviving air of his 
new situation to affect him, his spirits rallied, and he resumed 
his literary labor with extraordinary energy for a man in his 
condition. 

I was not with him at Mount McGregor, but I know that 
his effort there must have been prodigious. He probably 
dictated or composed more matter in the eight weeks after 
the first of May than in any other eight weeks of his life ; 
while in the eight weeks immediately preceding that date he 
did not compose as many pages. But the dying General 
seemed to summon back his receding powers, and expression, 
memory, will, all revived and returned at his command. His 
voice failed him, however, after a while, and he was obliged 
to desist from dictation and to use a pencil, not only in com- 
position, but even in communicating with his family and 
friends. This was doubtless a hardship at the moment, but 
was fortunate in the end for his fame; for the sentences 
jotted down from time to time were preserved exactly as they 
were written, and many of them are significant. They espe- 
cially indicate his recognition of the magnanimous sympathy 
offered him by Southerners. This recognition was manifest 
in a score of instances. He was visited at Mount McGregor 
by General Buckner, the Confederate commander who had 
surrendered to him at Fort Donelson, and he declared to his 
former enemy, "I have witnessed since my sickness just 
what I wished to see ever since the war — harmony and good 
feeling between the sections." To Dr. Douglas he expressed 
the same sentiment in nearly the same words : "lam thankful 
for the providential extension of my time, because it has en- 
abled me to see for myself the happy harmony whicn so sud- 
denly sprung up between those engaged but a few short years 



45S GRANT IN PEACE. 

ago in deadly conflict." These utterances were not left to a 
fading or faulty memory to gather up, but remain legible in 
the handwriting of their author. They form a fitting sequel 
to the acts of Donelson and Vicksburg and Appomattox. 
Certainly it never happened to a conqueror before to reap 
such a harvest of appreciation and even affection from the men 
that he subdued ; to accomplish in his death more of the aim 
of his life than even the victories of his life had achieved. 

He saw few friends at this time, and did little besides 
write and obey the directions of his physicians, or submit 
to the attentions of his family and nurses. His suffering, 
fortunately, was not greater than that of a patient in any 
ordinary lingering illness ; it proceeded principally from 
weakness, for the opiates always controlled the excruciating 
pains. These he was spared to the last. He perhaps once 
or twice had a glimmer of hope, but the rays were faint and 
quickly faded back into the obscurity of despair. He felt 
that he was working only to finish his self-appointed task. 

For he had an intense desire to complete his "Memoirs." 
It was upon the sale of his book that he counted for the 
future fortune of his family. It was indeed for his family, 
not for his fame, that he was laboring now ; his fame he felt 
was secure. But at his death his army pay would cease. 
There would remain to Mrs. Grant and his children, it is true, 
the Trust Fund, the income of which he had authority to dis- 
pose of by will ; but besides this and the mortgaged house in 
Sixty-sixth street, and one or two inconsiderable properties 
elsewhere, there was nothing ; and three families depended 
on him. His Personal Memoir, it was hoped, would bring 
in half a million of dollars ; but when he had ceased to work 
in the winter, this was little more than half completed, and 
the monetary value of the book would be greatly depreciated, 
if it must be concluded by any hand but his own. This was 
the consideration that strengthened the sinking soldier, that 
gave him courage to contend with fate and despair, and, 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT 459 

stricken as he was by one of the most terrible of maladies, to 
check the advance of Death himself, while he made his pre- 
parations under the very shadow of the wing and the glare of 
the scythe of the Destroyer, to secure a competence for his 
family after he himself should have left this world. The 
spectacle of the hero who had earned and worn the highest 
earthly honors, working amid the miseries of a sick-chamber 
to glean the gains that he knew he could never enjoy, — the 
fainting warrior propped up on that mountain-top to stammer 
out utterances to sell for the benefit of his children, — is 
a picture to which history in all her annals can find no 
parallel. 

Indeed, this simple, plain, and undramatic man, who never 
strove for effect, and disliked the demonstration of feeling as 
much as the parade of circumstance and power, was per- 
forming the most dramatic part before the world. His whole 
life had been a drama, in spite of him, full of surprises and 
startling results and violent contrasts, but nothing in it all 
was more unexpected than this last scene, this eager haste, 
not in business nor in battle, but in literary labor : this race 
with Death, this effort to finish a book in order t Secure 
a fortune for his family. 

But there was a key to the mystery, a solution of the 
riddle, and it is the explanation of every apparent mystery in 
the character of General Grant. His character at bottom 
was like that of other men. He loved and hated ; he suffered 
and enjoyed ; he appreciated what was done for and against 
him ; he relished his fame and his elevation, he felt his 
disappointments and his downfall ; his susceptibilities were 
keen, his passions strong; but he had the great faculty of 
concealing them so that those closest and acutest could 
seldom detect their existence. I sometimes wondered 
whether he was conscious of his own emotions, they were so 
completely under control ; but they were all there, all alive, 
all active, only enveloped in a cloak of obstinate reserve and 



460 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



majestic silence which only at the rarest intervals was 
torn aside by misfortune or lifted for a moment to a friend. 

And now he may himself have been but half aware of the 
sentiment that inspired him ; but since he had discovered 
that his personal honor was as clean, and his military fame as 
brilliant in the eyes of men as either had ever been, he 
determined that his reputation for wordly sense and shrewd- 
ness should also be redeemed. He would not die without 
regaining a fortune equal to that which had been wrung from 
him by fraud. No man should say that after all General 
Grant left his children penniless. Away down in the depths 
of his nature where neither affection nor friendship ever 
penetrated, except by the intuitions of a life-long intimacy, — 
this was the incentive that poured oil on the flames which 
the disease was quenching, this was the fuel that kept the 
worn-out machine still in motion, to the amazement of a 
world. 

When the work was over, the energy expired ; when the 
motive was withdrawn, the effort ceased ; when the influence 
that was the impetus of the machine was exhausted, will and 
strengm alike failed. Immediately after the end of the book 
was reached, the other end was seen to be at hand. One or 
two spasmodic bursts of life flared up, like gusts of an 
expiring fire, but they probably deceived not even himself, 
and certainly no one besides. His former indifference to 
life returned as soon as his task was accomplished. 

The country too had no wish that he should linger on in 
agony. If he could have been restored to health and 
strength, nothing that the nation could have done to secure 
that end would have been lacking, or been thought too 
costly; but now that he could never be more than a sufferer, 
prostrate and hopeless, there was no desire to retain him. 
Reverent sorrow and sympathy had long ascended from 
every quarter of the land toward the cottage on that 
mountain-top, but there were no prayers uttered for pro- 
tracted days, 




-2 



THE LAST DAYS OF GENERAL GRANT. 



461 






The final crisis was neither long nor painful. On the 
2 1st of July the country was informed that he was failing 
again. For two days his symptoms indicated increasing 
depression and exhaustion, and on the 23d came the end. 
There was no renewed struggle, no distinct consciousness on 
his part that his feet were wet with the waters of that river 
which we all must cross; he made no formal parting again 
with his family; he endured no pangs of dissolution, but 
passed away quietly without a groan or a shudder, with no 
one but his wife and children and his medical attendants by 
his side. He had done most of the great things of his life 
with calmness and composure, and in the same way he 
entered the long procession in which Alexander and Caesar 
and Wellington and Napoleon had preceded him. 



CHAPTER L. 

LETTERS OF GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BADEAU. 

THE following letters are printed exactly as they were 
written by General Grant, without either correction or 
modification of the language, and entirely without addition 
by me. There are only four omissions or excisions in the 
series, and these are all indicated. 

I was so closely and almost incessantly by Grant's side in 
the first four years of our intercourse that I received hardly 
any letters from him during that period. Our correspond- 
ence can hardly be said to have begun until I went to 
Europe in 1869, immediately after he became President. 
Even then his letters were infrequent ; I wrote to him, 
except when I was in America, once or twice a month during 
his Presidential terms, but I always sent my letters unsealed 
and under cover to his private secretaries, General Porter 
and General Babcock, and his reply was usually contained in 
the letters they wrote to me ; of these I have several hun- 
dred, but they of course are in the language of the writers, 
and comprise many other matters besides the messages of 
President Grant. 

But after his arrival in Europe his intimacy with me was 
renewed and deepened. He passed several weeks at my 
house, and I accompanied him, with rare exceptions, wherever 
he went, both in Great Britain and Ireland, and during his 
first Continental tour. I visited him afterward in Paris and 
Rome, and went with him as far as Marseilles when he fin- 
ally sailed for the East. During this period he gave me 

(462) 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 463 

more of his confidence than ever before, and treated me with 
a familiarity I had not enjoyed either during the war or in 
the four years afterward in Washington, or during my visits 
to America while he was President. He seemed at this time 
to throw away much of the reserve that he maintained with 
nearly everybody else, and Mrs. Grant often told me that I 
appeared nearer to him than any other man except his own 
sons. I lived with him as one of his family ; I shared the 
expenses when we traveled together. We were often among 
those whose language he did not speak ; his son Jesse, who 
was of the party, was too young to be really a companion, 
and for months I was the only man who could talk with him 
on terms of intimacy. We discussed all his military record 
hundreds of times, and he read and revised repeatedly the 
portions of his history on which I was then engaged. We 
talked of his political career, and he told me many of the 
events of his Presidency that had occurred while I was 
separated from him. He understood fully my intention to 
write his civil history, and allowed me to ask any questions 
upon disputed points ; and I could never perceive that he 
withheld a complete reply, or was unwilling to give me his 
opinion on any public event of his career, or his judgment of 
any man with whom he had ever been associated. 

But it was in purely personal matters that I got closer 
still. In what affected his character or feeling he allowed 
me to probe him strangely, as well as to suggest an isolated 
step or outline a general conduct for the present or future. 
Of course he often did not follow my suggestions, but he was 
never offended at them, and I felt that in many matters I 
was able to influence his action, both during his European 
tour and in the years that I passed in America after his and 
my return. 

These letters are the proof and illustration of what I say, 
as well as of what has preceded in this volume. I give them 
in their chronological order, prefacing or adding such remarks 



464 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

of my own as may be necessary to explain the circumstances 
under "Which they were written or the opinions they contain. 
They may sometimes suggest to me other facts or utterances 
of importance or interest, and these comments of mine will 
serve, I trust, as a thread to bind the letters together and 
give a certain unity to the whole. About half a dozen of 
the letters have already been printed entire in the earlier 
pages of this volume, where they peculiarly illustrate the 
theme or vindicate its treatment ; but I have thought it 
better to repeat them in the complete series than to inter- 
rupt the continuity, for toward the close the letters will be 
found almost to form a connected narrative. 

They contain so many references to my own affairs that 
in order to make them intelligible I have been obliged to say 
more of myself and my concerns than would otherwise be 
delicate or desirable. But whatever explains or elucidates 
Grant's language I have supposed would be interesting to 
the world. In the same spirit I have left unchanged a few- 
passages that may give pain, rather than mutilate his letters 
or misrepresent his feelings or opinions. General Grant will 
be so prominent a figure in history that personal considera- 
tions become insignificant in the attempt to portray him in 
his habit as he lived. 

There are few men, however, whose private letters would 
bear such public inspection, or in whose intimate thoughts 
and expressions the world can find so little to criticize or 
friends so little to wish unsaid. This disclosure will reveal 
nothing to General Grant's dishonor, and no more faults 
will be found than every one has already known that he 
possessed as the common lot of humanity ; while no one can 
read this correspondence carefully without obtaining not only 
a better insight into his character, but a profounder impres- 
sion of his personal and public virtues. To me the more 
intimately I knew him the more he became the object of 
affection and admiration. His very weaknesses made him 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 465 

seem more human, and his excellences were never diminished 
by being studied close at hand. He was greater and better in 
my eyes than to any of those who stood further off and were 
blinded either by the mists of their own passions or the halo 
of his position and deeds. 

One word more : although General Grant was so reticent 
and almost secretive with individuals, he was not so with the 
world. He was willing for much to be known about himself 
that he could not bring himself to utter. He never suggested 
that one word I wrote about his personal characteristics in 
my "Military History" or in a political memoir on which this 
work is founded, should be omitted or changed. He listened 
in advance to an article in The Century Magazine for May, 
1885, in which I disclosed and discussed many of his most 
peculiar qualities. Mrs. Grant suggested and he sanctioned a 
paragraph for that article, about his family relations, which was 
so personal that the editor struck it out and refused to publish 
it, although I protested. He read and revised the paper I 
wrote for the New York Mail and Express in 1885, describing 
the origin of his "Memoirs"; and in those memoirs them- 
selves he showed himself willing to disclose details of his life 
and character and sentiment quite as sacred as any that I 
have revealed. I believe that, with the portraiture which this 
volume affords the subject himself would be satisfied, could 
he know its character and its effect upon his fame. 

Letter No. One. 
This note explains itself. It shows the interest Grant took 
in the great question of Reconstruction which so affected his 
own action and career, and betrays the democratic simplicity 
of the General-in-Chief and virtual dictator over the conquered 
territory ; for this Caesar traveled in a street-car. 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, 

Jan'y 17 th , 1866. 
Col., — I am going to the Senate Chamber to hear the speeches 
on reconstruction this afternoon and will not be back to the office 
3° 



■ 66 GRANT IN PEACE. 

again. Please tell the orderly that brings my horse to return -with 
him, as I will go home in the cars. 

Yours, <Scc., U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Two. 

This is the letter already printed in Chapter XVII, on 
"Grant as a Presidential Candidate." It requires no further 
comment or elucidation than it there received. 

Headquarters Army of the United States, 
Galena, III., Aug. iS ,h / 68. 
Dear Badeau, — As I have concluded to remain here until 
about the close of Sept., I think you had better open the letters 
that have accumulated in Washington. Such as are on official 
business refer to Rawlins. All others do with as your judgment 
dictates, only do not send any to me except such as you think 
absolutely require my attention and will not keep till my return. 
If you are not otherwise more agreeably engaged I think you will 
find it pleasant here for a while and then to return with me. I 
have also written to Comstock to come out if he feels like it. The 
family are all well. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Gran r. 

Letter No. Three. 

General Grant suffered all his life from severe headaches 
proceeding from biliousness. The movements of armies were 
sometimes delayed by this cause. I remember that during 
the march from the Wilderness, a halt of a day was called 
while he lay suffering at Maggahick Church, and in the 
Appomattox campaign he was nearly blind with pain when 
he got the news that Lee was willing to surrender ; but this 

cured him. 

Jan. i2 ,h /6o. 

Dear Gen'l, — Say to the people who I appointed to-day to 
meet that I have a severe headache and will not leave the house. 
I cannot see any one here on business either during the day. 

Yours Truly, 
# U. S. Grant. 

Gen' I Badeau. 



LETTERS OF GEN, GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 467 

Letter No. Four. 

This is the correspondence with me on the day of Grant's 
first inauguration, 1869, already given in Chapter XIX, on 
"Cabinet Making." It is worth noting that the first line he 
wrote as President was to appoint an hour when he would 
receive the present of a Bible. 

March 4, 1869. 

Dear General, — Mr. George H. Stuart is one of a committee of 
three, the other two being the Chief-Justice and Senator Freling- 
huysen, who desire to present you, in the name of some religious 
society, with a Bible. They will wait on you whenever you say — ex- 
cept that the Chief-Justice must be at the Supreme Court, and Mr. 
Stuart leaves town to-morrow night. If you will send word to me 
what hour will suit you, I will let Mr. Stuart know. Mr. Stuart pro- 
poses to-morrow morning before ten o'clock, or if the court does 
not meet till eleven, before that time. 
With great respect, 

Your obedient servant, Adam Badeau. 

The President of the United States. 

The bearer will wait for an answer ; if you are out he will still 
wait till your return. 

P. S. — I have just learned positively that the Supreme Court 
does not meet until eleven. 

On the back of this the new President penciled : 

"To-morrow before 10 a. m. at my house, or between 10 a. m. 
& 3 p. m. at the Executive Mansion. U. S. G. 

Letter No. Five. 
This letter is the one referred to in Chapter XXIII, on 
" Grant and Motley." It was written, as I there state, in 
reply to one of mine suggesting that Grant should say some- 
thing to me commending Motley which I could show to the 
Minister. The "utterances" that he speaks of were one or 
two public speeches of Motley delivered soon after his arrival 
in England. At this time, Grant's first outburst of anger at 



468 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



Motley's course had abated, and he intended to allow the 
envoy to remain, but he had directed Fish to withdraw the 
negotiation of the Alabama question from his hands. The 
remark on this subject was intended to smooth the rebuke 
which the withdrawal implied : as Motley was to stay, Grant 
thought it well to make him feel as pleasant as possible. The 
subsequent change in the President's intention was caused by 
the discovery that Motley had placed on file in the British 
Foreign Office the paper which had so offended his superiors. 
But in July, 1869, this fact was not known, for Motley failed 
to report it promptly. This whole matter has been discussed 
by Mr. Fish and Mr. Bancroft Davis in papers already given 
to the world. I mention it because it seems necessary to 
explain why General Grant wrote so favorably of Motley — 
almost to him — at this time. There was no tergiversation 
in his course. 

I need not call attention to his remarks on public policy. 
His predecessor had so often advocated a "policy" of his 
own in opposition to the will of the people, that the very 
word had become offensive to many patriots. This Grant 
had in view in the line he wrote to me. 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, July 14 th , 1S69. 
Dear Badeau, — Your two very welcome letters were duly 
received. I shall always be glad to hear from you but may not 
be able to reply very frequently. — The little insight your letters 
to public acts and feeling abroad is something which cannot 
be gathered so clearly from official dispatches. So far I have 
been pleased with Mr. Motley's utterances abroad, and I have 
no doubt he will prove the very best man that could have been 
selected for the English mission. It is not half so important that 
the Alabama claims should be settled as it is that when settled it 
should be on terms creditable to this nation. I do not see that 
any harm is to arise from the matter standing in an unsettled 
state. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 469 

I leave here to-morrow for Long Branch, and the North, to be 
gone all summer. I will return here however from time to time 
myself to look after public business. Probably will not remain 
absent longer than two weeks at any one time. — Public affairs 
look to me to be progressing very favorably. The revenues of 
the country are being collected as they have not be^n before, and 
expenditures are looked after more carefully. This is policy 
enough for the present. The first thing it seems to me is to 
establish the credit of the country. My family are all well and 
join in respects to you. Please remember me kindly to Mr. 
Motley and his family. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. Six. 

This letter shows the exactness of the statements made by 
Grant's friends that Motley's removal was not occasioned by 
Sumner's action in regard to St. Domingo. He did not of 
course suppose when he wrote this familiar letter that it would 
ever become an historical document, but for that very reason 
it furnishes incontestable proof on the disputed point. 

The second paragraph refers to my bonds as Consul-Gen- 
eral at London. Those who had arranged to become my 
bondsmen were absent when I received the appointment, and 
I started for England before the bonds were filed. They were 
speedily signed, however, and there was no need for Grant 
to become my surety at that time, but his name was on 
my bonds twelve years afterward, when I was appointed Con- 
sul-General at Havana. 

I hardly need call attention to the utterances about the 
fate of Napoleon III. The readers of this volume know that 
General Grant cherished the same feeling to the last. Even 
the death of the Emperor and the approach of his own end 
did not abate the severity of his judgment. 

Long Branch, N. J., 

Aug. 2 2 d , 187O. 

Dear General, — Your several letters Avritten since your 
return to England have been received, and read with great inter- 



4 - GRANT IN PEACE. 

est. I have been negligent about writing but nevertheless prize 
and appreciate your letters all the same. Your letter speaking 
of the effect newspaper rumors about Mr. Motley's removal had 
upon him was rec'd the very day I sent in the name of his 
successor. Mr. Motley's removal was long in contemplation, as 
you know, and" he was only left in England as long as he was out 
of deference to Gov. Fish, who is averse to changes, or to doing 
anything which gives inconvenience to others. — I regretted the 
delay in getting your bonds ; I inquired about the matter several 
times, and spoke of having them made up myself, but found that, 
to do so, you would have to make out, and sign, a new set. — 
Being Executive of this Nation I shall not write about the pres- 
ent terrible war raging on the Continent. However, before this 
reaches you I would not be surprised if Napoleon should be off 
his throne (he is practically so now) and peace, through the inter- 
vention of other Nations, in a fair way of being negotiated.— The 
winding up of Congress was much more harmonious and satis- 
factory than the beginning. I think the Republican party stands 
well before the people. We will lose Members of Congress in the 
Fall elections no doubt, because it always happens that the party 
in power are less active at the election intervening between two 
Presidential elections than the party out. 

I have not yet sent any one to take Mr. M.'s place in England. 
As you have no doubt learned from the papers Mr. Frelinghuysen 
declines. It is to be regretted for Mr. F. and his family, are 
good representative Americans. 

The Summer in the United States has been intolerably warm. 
At Long Branch however we always have a breeze which makes 
the warmest weather endurable. — Mrs. Grant and the children 
send their kindest regards. I shall always be glad to hear from 
you, and to get exactly the sort of letters you have written so far, 
though 1 may not write often myself. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen'l A. Badeau, 

Consul, etc. 

Letter No. Seven. 

The article for the British press referred to in this letter 
was a comparison between the War of the Rebellion and 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. a-jy 

that between Germany and France in 1870. It was written 
for Frazer's Magazine at the request of the editor, Mr. 
Froude, and of course had the sanction of the President 
and the Secretary of State. 

I have not stricken out the sentences referring to the 
Adams family, although Grant must have subsequently modi- 
fied his opinion, for it was after this that he appointed 
Charles Francis Adams arbitrator for the United States at 
Geneva ; and I know that he highly appreciated the services 
there rendered to the country by that distinguished states- 
man and diplomatist. 

The remarks in regard to Butler are significant. Butler 
was the only one of Grant's personal enemies whom he seemed 
to me entirely to forgive, — until his final illness. I never 
discussed the subject with him, but the cordiality appeared 
complete; -all rancor was past; although he believed that 
Butler had said as offensive things of him as any of his ad- 
versaries. 

When I sent him the pages of my history describing 
Butler's campaign on the James he wrote in some curious 
interpolations. I had said : " Grant came East fully intend- 
ing and prepared to remove that officer (in whose military 
ability he had little confidence)." The words in brackets he 
struck out and substituted, in pencil, in the margin — "Who 
he had only known by reputation and one who had stepped 
into the highest grade in the army from the beginning and 
without experience in the subordinate grades. Want of 
such experience he did not believe proper preparation for a 
command." 

In the same chapter I had written: "Grant gave him two 
of the ablest professional soldiers in the army to command 
his corps, in the hope that Butler would avail himself of 
their talent and experience." To this Grant added in the 
margin, also in pencil : " Note. Results convinced Grant 
that in his selection of one of these corps commanders he 



4/2 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



contributed largely to the failure in the capture of Peters- 
burg on arrival of the Army of the Potomac on the banks 
of the James." The officer referred to was W. F. Smith. 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, Oct. 23 d , 1870. 

Dear Badeau, — I am in receipt of your letter in which you 
speak of the article you propose writing for the British press, 
and of getting something from Sheridan to aid you in preparing 
it. I have rec'd but one letter from Sheridan since he has 
been with the Prussians. It is probably too late for that letter 
to be of service to you; but I send it. It will at least interest 
you. — I also send you a review of the reviewer Adams, by Senator 
Howe. The Adams' do not possess one noble trait of character 
that I ever heard of, from old John Adams down to the last of 
all of them, H. B. — In writing your second volume I would 
advise to steer clear of criticisms of persons on account of your 
personal acquaintance. For instance you know personally much 
more of Butler, Meade and others, against whom prejudice may 
exist, than any one could learn from any authentic record. I 
would give them all the credit the record entitles them to and 
particularly avoid personalities. This is voluntary advice however 
and you can use it as you please. 

My family are all very well and wish to be remembered to you. 
You will learn before this reaches that Morton declines the 
English Mission. It is because a bitter copperhead would take 
his place in the Senate should he go. I have not made up my 
mind now who to send but I will not leave Mr. Motley. 

Yours, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eight. 
This letter is already given in full in Chapter XXIX. 
The information spoken of was for my use in the preparation 
of the "Military History of Ulysses S. Grant." 

Executivf. Mansion-, 
Washington, D. C, Nov. 19 th , 1S71. 
1>i \r Badeau, — As I have before assured you your letters 
are rec'd and read with great pleasure though I may not find time 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



473 



to answer many of them. The information asked for by you, 
from the War Dep't, Porter undertook to get, and has obtained so 
far as the clerks in the Dep't. could work it out. But it does not 
satisfy Porter and he now intends to go to the Dep't. himself and 
work it up. This accounts for the delay. 

I have not yet written a line in my message. Will commence 
to-morrow and hope to make it short — Everything in the country 
looks politically well at present. The most serious apprehension 
is from the awards that may be made by the commissions at 
Geneva and in Washington. Should they go largely in favor of 
the English it would at least cause much disappointment. — In 
speaking of political matters I do not of course allude to my own 
chances. It will be a happy day for me when I am out of politi- 
cal life. But I do feel a deep interest in the republican party 
keeping control of affairs until the results of the war are acqui- 
esced in by all political parties. When that is accomplished we 
can afford to quarrel about minor matters. 

My family are all well and send you their kindest regards. 
Fred, sailed for Europe on Friday last. He will be in England 
about May next and will stay there, I hope, long enough to do up 
the island pretty well. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Nine. 

General Schenck was Minister to England when this 
letter was written : 

Long Branch, N. J., 

July i 4 (h , 1873. 

My Dear General, — General Babcock has handed me your 
letters to him & myself, and the five pages of your history of the 
rebellion accompanying them, all of which I have carefully read. 
I have no criticism whatever to make in what you have presented, 
and believe you are as near accurate in your statements as it is 
possible to get. 

I am always glad to hear from you, and to hear of your good 
health and prosperity. But I am worse than I used to be about 
writing. As I grow older, I become more indolent, my besetting 
sin through life. It is too late to reform now. 



.j. GRANT IN PEACE. 

The season at Long Branch has been very pleasant so far, and 
the number of sojourners here is larger than ever before. The 
place has increased vastly in the last four years in the number of 
private cottages. 

My kindest regard to Gen. Schenck, his family, and his official 
household should you meet them. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau, 

Consul General, 

London, Eng. 

Letter No. Ten. 

General Grant's daughter and her husband had spent a 

day or two at my house in the suburbs of London, and the 

visit had been so pleasant to me that I wrote an account of 

it for the General and Mrs. Grant, which I knew would please 

them. In reply the General wrote, out of the fullness of 

a father's heart, the glowing account of his children that 

follows. Nothing could exceed the admiration as well as 

affection with which he regarded his sons and his daughter, 

and the interest he took in whatever concerned them. The 

parental feeling was as strong in him as in any man I have 

ever known. 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, D. C, Oct. 25 th , 1S74. 
My Dear General, — Your letter stating that Mr. Sartoris 
& Nellie had been at your house in London was received while 
Mrs. Grant and I were in Chicago attending the wedding of Fred, 
to Miss Honore. Fred's wife is beautiful and is spoken of by all 
her acquaintances, male and female, young & old, as being quite 
as charming for her manners, amiability, good sense, &: educa- 
tion, as she is for her beauty. Mrs. Grant and I were charmed 
with the young lady and her family, — father & mother, sister 
& four brothers. We expect them to spend the winter with us, 
& as Mr. Sartoris & Nellie will be here in January, we will 
have I hope, quite a gay household. Buck is in a law office in 
New York City, and is a student at the same time in Columbia 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



475 



Law School. Jesse entered Cornell University, without a condition, 
although he has never attended school but three years, then in an 
infant class. My boys are all growing up. Fred with no surplus 
flesh, weighs 193 lbs., and Buck who is a spare looking young 
man, weighs 160 lbs., twenty pounds more than I weighed at 
forty years of age. As my children are all leaving me it is grat- 
ifying to know that, so far, they give good promise. They are all 
of good habits and are very popular with their acquaintances and 
associates. We have had — Mrs. Grant has — a letter from Nellie 
this morning. But as I was busy I have neither read it nor heard 
its contents ; therefore do not know whether it was written before 
or after her visit to London. 

Although remiss in writing I am always glad to hear from and 
take as warm an interest in your welfare as though I wrote 
frequently. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gcrfl A. Badeau, 

Consul Gen'' I, Eng. 

Letter No. Eleven. 
In 1875, I visited the United States to be married. Pres- 
ident Grant had promised me to give the bride away, but two 
or three days before the wedding he found himself unable to 
be present and wrote me the following letter. I went at 
once to Washington to persuade him to keep his engagement, 
but was unsuccessful ; but before I left the White House he 
offered me the mission to Belgium. In accordance with his 
suggestion Washington was included in the wedding journey, 
and the President made a dinner of forty on the occasion. 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, Ap'l 23 d , 1875. 
Dear General, — I write to express my regrets that I shall 
not be able to be present at your wedding as I had expected, and 
so much desired. Invitations that I had given — not for partic- 
ular date — for company to spend a week with us has been ac- 
cepted, and the company will arrive during the early part of next 
week. Allow me therefore to heartily congratulate you, in be- 



476 GRANT IN PEACE. 

half of Mrs. Grant and myself, and wish you a happy journey 
through life. 

Please to say to Miss Niles that I very much regret that I shall 
not have the pleasure of conferring her upon my old — not in 
years, but in date of service — Staff Officer. 

Ever Your friend, 

1". S. Grant. 
Gen' I A. Badeau, 

Consul Gen'/, London, Eng. 

P. S. — I hope you will take Washington in your tour and give 
Mrs. Grant and me an opportunity of having you and Mrs. Badeau 
meet some of our friends — and your old ones — socially. 

U. S. G. 

Letter No. Twelve. 
On the day of my marriage the President sent me the 
following telegram : 

Washington, D. C, April 29, 1875. 
General A. Badeau, — Gramercy Park Hotel, New York: 

Please accept my hearty congratulations upon the auspicious 
events of to-day and my regrets that public business prevents my 
being present to present the bride and congratulate you in person 
as I had expected to do. U, S. Grant. 

Letter No. Thirteen. 

Before leaving America I declined the mission to Belgium 
for personal reasons, which are referred to in the omitted 
portion of this letter. General Grant, however, knew that I 
had originally desired a diplomatic appointment, and he had 
always promised me one. The promise had indeed been 
kept, for in 1870 he offered me the mission to Uruguay and 
Paraguay, when I preferred to be Consul-General at London; 
but now he proposed Belgium, and pressed the place on me, 
even after I had declined it. My appointment was made out 
and sent to me in London, together with the letter of creden- 
tials to the King, without any further notice than this letter, 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 477 

which indeed only reached me in England. But my chief 
and friend persisted in his kindness. 

Long Branch, N. J., 

July 5 ,h / 75- 

Dear General, — Your letter written a few days before you 
sailed for Liverpool was duly received and I should have answered 
it before you got away. What I wanted particularly to say — and 
now do say — is that I will not regard your declination of the 
Mission to Brussels for the present. I presume Jones will not 
return to Brussels, though under the letter which he received when 
his resignation was tendered he can do so. His household goods, 
&c, were sent home in advance. If he does not return the mis- 
sion will still be tendered to you, — and I hope you with Mrs. Badeau, 
may enjoy it. Of course I can not know, or even surmise, why 
you did not wish .... But this will all be right very soon 
and I know you will then prefer a Mission to a Consulate. 

I am not giving advice but doing what I think you will be glad 
of on second reflection. If I am mistaken you can decline the 
Mission when it reaches you. 

My family, and your friends here at the Branch, are all well. 
Buck sails from Liverpool on the 8th inst., so that I hope you may 
meet him before he starts. 

Please remember me to Gen. Schenck & daughters. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Fourteen. 
This telegram is in reply to one from me, asking for infor- 
mation in regard to General W. F. Smith's report of the 
battle of Cold Harbor, for my Military History of Grant : 

[Telegram.] 

Washington, Nov. i, 1876. 
Gen. Badeau, U. S. Cons id- General, London: 
No report from Smith after June 4th. 

U. S. Grant. 



478 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Letter No. Fifteen. 

This letter was written immediately before the election of 
Hayes, and of course toward the close of Grant's second 
Presidential term : 

Executive Mansion', 
Washington, Nov. 2 d / 76. 
Dear Badeau, — I have read with great pleasure your chapter 
on the Cold Harbor Campaign, and given it to Babcock to return. 
I have no criticisms to make, and think it not only very accurate, 
but that it will explain many existing misapprehensions in regard 
to that Campaign. 

I have no time to write further, people being in waiting now 
wishing to come in to see me. By June next I hope to see you, in 
person, in London. It is my intention by that time to start on a 
somewhat extended tour, taking Mrs. Grant and Jesse with me. 
Jesse will then be a senior in Cornell University and may only 
remain with me during his vacation. But if he remains with me 
he will still graduate at the age of twenty-one, quite young enough. 
Always taking an interest in your welfare, I subscribe myself, 

Your friend, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Sixteen. 
The chapter in my history here referred to is that which 
describes Sherman's Atlanta campaign : 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington. Nov. 15 th / 76. 
Dear Badeau, — I received from Chicago on last Sunday, 
your sixth chapter of "Grant and his Campaigns," and read it 
over hastily at once, intending to give a more careful perusal. I 
have not had time however since, to do so, but as I gave it to 
Sherman to read the same evening, and as he read the most of it 
aloud, it is not necessary for me to retain it any longer. I send 
you Porter's letter. It indicates that he had some criticisms to 
make ; I certainly have none to make myself, nor had Sherman 
further than to make two or three small corrections of distances 
in the field of his campaigns. I hope you will be able to get out 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



479 



the second volume by May or June. I expect to be in England 
early in July when I shall hope to see you if my successor has not 
decapitated you before that. The question of successor is not 
yet fully determined nor can it be until we get the official canvass 
of the States of La., S C, & Fla. 
With best wishes for your welfare, 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventeen. 

This letter, as the date shows, was written shortly after 
the inauguration of Hayes. As soon as Grant went out of 
power I wrote to him, to show and to say that my regard was 
as great as when he had been President, and the letter that 
follows was his reply. He was already planning his European 
tour, and I had invited him to make my house his home as 
long as he remained in England. In February, General 
Horace Porter, my successor as his private secretary, visited 
me in London, and brought me word that the General could 
not accept prolonged hospitalities, but w r ould like to join me 
in a mess at my house ; and I consented. When he wrote 
this letter he expected to go direct to me. 

Washington, D. C, 

Apl. 23 d / 77. 

Dear General, — I have just received your letter of the 24th 
of March, and have before me the chapter on the Petersburgh 
Mine explosion which I will read so soon as I finish this letter. — I 
am much obliged for the kind expressions in your letter and shall 
only be too happy to serve you whenever it may be in my power. 
I spoke to Mr. Hayes in your behalf in the only interview I ever 
had with him when the subject of retention of any of my 
appointees was mentioned. 

Mrs. Grant & I have been west for the past three weeks, and 
over, which accounts for the lateness of this letter, and the delay 
in returning your manuscript. 

I wrote Judge Pierrepont that we would arrive in England late 
in June. Jesse goes with us and as his college examination does 



480 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



not take place until the middle of June that time was fixed upon 
for starting. But subsequently to writing that letter Jesse was 
home during a few days' vacation — at the end of a term — and 
said that by diligent study he could get through his course much 
earlier. He finished last Friday and is now with us, practically a 
senior two months in advance of his class. We will sail earlier 
therefore, most likely on the 17th of May, and by the America 
line of steamers from Phil\ I wish you would explain this matter 
to Judge Pierrepont, and present my kindest regards to him and 
Mrs. Pierrepont. Yours faithfully, 

Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighteen. 
In June, 1877, General Grant arrived at Liverpool and 
proceeded by Manchester to London. From this time I was 
constantly with him. The month of June and part of July 
were passed principally in London. I have already described 
the dinners of the Queen and the Prince of Wales, and told 
of the Court Ball, and the Reception at the house of the 
United States Minister. Besides this, dinners were offered 
him by the Princess Louise and the Marquis of Lome, the 
Prime Minister, Lord Beaconsfield, by the Dukes of Devon- 
shire and Wellington, the Marquis of Ripon, the Earls of 
Derby, Carnarvon, and Dunraven, the Master of Trinity and 
Lord Houghton, and many others. Mr. I'ierrepont invited 
the Prince of Wales to meet him at dinner; I gave him an 
evening party and a dinner ; Mr. Smalley, the correspon- 
dent of the New York Tribune, invited him to breakfast, and 
Mr. Russell Young, of the New York Herald, to dinner; the 
Reform Club and the United Service Club gave him dinners, 
at the last of which the Duke of Cambridge, the Commander- 
in-Chief of the British army, presided; and there were 
innumerable parties, afternoon and evening, made in his 
honor. The Duke of Argyll, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
Mrs. I licks-Lord, of New York, the Marquis of Hertford — all 
entertained him ; and everybody of any consequence in Lon- 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 48 1 

don called on him. The Provost of Eton invited him to 
lunch, the University of Oxford offered him a degree ; and 
the City of London presented him with its freedom. 

Early in July he visited Belgium, and afterward passed 
up the Rhine to Switzerland and Northern Italy. At Brus- 
sels, Frankfort, Cologne, Geneva, and Berne he was the 
object of public or official courtesies. The Grand Duke of 
Baden invited him to his villa near Constance, and Garibaldi 
sent him a message of welcome while he was at Varese. 

At Ragatz I left him for a week to arrange for his tour in 
Scotland. The Dukes of Sutherland and Argyll had asked 
me to bring him to them if he went as far north as their seats 
of Inverary and Dunrobin, and I now wrote to them to pro- 
pose his visits. In a few days he arrived in England and at 
once went to Edinburgh and the Highlands, even extending 
his trip to John O'Groat's House, the extreme northern point 
of the island. By October he had returned to the south of 
England, stopping at Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Leeds, 
Sunderland, Leamington, Stratford, and Warwick, on his 
way, and receiving the freedom of nearly every city through 
which he passed. After this he paid a visit to Mr. and Mrs. 
Sartoris, the parents of his daughter's husband, who had a 
country house near Southampton. 

I had been absent so much from my consular post that, 
although this was with the sanction of the State Depart- 
ment, I felt that I ought now to remain for a while in Lon- 
don, and accordingly I was not with General Grant at South- 
ampton, Brighton, Torquay, and Birmingham. Nevertheless 
I conducted all his correspondence with the civic functiona- 
ries, accepted his invitations, public and private, and arranged 
his route, as I had done ever since his arrival, both on the 
Continent and in England. In London, the Minister, Mr. 
Pierrepont, directed one or two of the most important 
arrangements, but with this exception, all his plans were 
made through me, and were for the most part such as I pro- 
posed — never such as I disadvised. 
31 



4 3 2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

General Alvord, the Paymaster-General of the army, had 
written to warn me that he supposed I did not come within 
the provisions of the law allowing certain retired officers of 
the army to hold diplomatic or consular positions. General 
Grant as President had examined this matter with several of 
his Cabinet, and I had been retired expressly to enable me to 
enter the diplomatic service. He now took a lively interest 
in the question, and when the matter was revived years after- 
ward, he was ready to testify, in the last months of his life, 
in my favor. 

Warsash House was the residence of Mr. Sartoris. 

Warsash House, 

TlTCHFIELD, 

Hants, 

Oct. 3 d / 77- 
Dear General, — I am in receipt of your letter enclosing 
Mr. Jessup's invitation and your two replies. It is of course 
always pleasant for me to have you with me but as I do not 
intend to have any public demonstrations it is not necessary if 
your public duties require you at home. I have written to South- 
ampton declining the banquet, but saying that, if agreeable to the 
Mayor and Corporation, I would drive over there on Friday or 
Saturday by 12 m., and would pay my respects to them at any 
place they might designate, and return here not later than at five, — 
starting time — in the evening. 

I am surprised at Alvord's letter. Does he explain the 
change come over his views since his former letter advising you of 
the decision of the Atty Gehl? There are but two officers — 
you and Sickles — affected by the decision, and as you had made 
no claim for Army pay while in other Govt, employment, and as 
Sickles is now out of the public service — active — it would look as 
though he had raised the question and got a decision in his favor. 
I shall probably go to Torquay on Monday next. If you feel 
like going, and that you can do so without detriment to the public 
service, my sending your letter declining need not interfere. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 483 

I will telegraph you the exact day when I will be in London as 
soon as possible, and also the day when I will go to Birmingham. 

Yours Truly, 
Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Nineteen. 

The last part of this letter refers to the assertion made by 

a prominent American that I had not been authorized or 

invited to accompany General Grant on his tour, but had 

thrust myself upon him. 

Warsash, 

Oct. 5 th / 77. _ 

Dear Gen., — I enclose you two cards of invitation to the 
Merchant Tailors' feast which you may accept formally. I have 
already informed them informally, in reply to a note sent to ascer- 
tain if I could attend, that I would be in London on the 18th of 
Oct. 

My plans from now until we go to the Continent are about 
complete, and if you will be kind enough you may arrange 
accordingly. On Monday the 15th we will be in London: on 
Wednesday, the 17th, I would like to go to Birmingham to return 
the next day evening. On Saturday — the 20th — we go to Brighton 
to be the guests of Capt. Ashbury until the following Tuesday. 
We then return to London and will go to Paris on the 24th. 

I am amazed at what you say about . . . but are you 
sure he has made any such statements as you quote ? Every- 
thing I have said in his presence — orelsewhere — disproves his 
statements if he has made them. You have been of incalculable 
help to me, and your presence has been most acceptable to our 
whole party. When I see ... I will take occasion to put in 
a few words that he will feel if he has been talking as you 
suspect. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen, A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Twenty. 
The Mr. Walter spoken of in this letter was the pro- 
prietor of the London Times, who had invited General Grant 
to pay him a visit at his country seat of Bearwood. 



4§4 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



Wars ash, 

TlTCHFIELD, 

Oct. 8 th / 77. 

Dear General, — I enclose you a letter which has just been 
returned to me. I wish you would drop a note to Mr. Walter 
making the explanation. 

I was under the impression that I wrote you that we would go 
to Birmingham on Wednesday, and telegraphed to correct the date. 
From your last letter however I see you wrote to the Mayor that 
we would be there on Tuesday, which is right. 

We start in a few minutes for Torquay. 

Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Twenty-one. 

I had suggested that General Grant should write in per- 
son, acknowledging some of the numerous hospitalities he had 
received in England, and this letter is his reply. He was 
always ready in such matters, but in the hurry of travel and 
crowd of engagements the proper recognition was sometimes 
overlooked. 

Torquay, 

Oct. 9 tt / 77. 

Dear General, — I shall leave London for Paris on the 24th. 
The Saturday preceding we go to Brighton to remain until the fol- 
lowing Tuesday. You see by a letter returned to me — and 
which I sent to you, that I answered Mr. Walter promptly. I also 
wrote, the first day after my arrival at Warsash, to every one who 
had entertained me — including the Mayor of Leamington — 
whom I had not previously written to. We will go to London on 
Monday next. 1 will telegraph you the station at which we will 
arrive, and the hour in time. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Twenty-two. 
This note was written at my consular office, where General 
Grant called to see rrie, and not finding me there scribbled 
these lines on my official paper. I had invited him and Mrs. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 485 

Grant to a little box I occupied eight or ten miles from 
London. He was staying at the Bristol Hotel. 

Sir Edward Watkins was the Chairman (President as 
Americans call it), of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway- 
Company, and had offered the hospitality of his road when- 
ever General Grant traveled over it ; as in fact did most of 
the railroad companies in England. 

Consulate-General of the United States 
for Great Britain and Ireland, 

London, Oct. 18 th , 1877. 
E. C. 
Dear General, — I just returned this a. m. from Birmingham. 
The reception there was extremely flattering, and the speeches 
showed not only present warmth of sentiment for America but 
that it had been the same during the trying days when many 
other communities in England felt and spoke quite differently. — I 
regret that I shall not be able to get out to your house — prob- 
ably — during my stay in London. Hope however that you will 
be able to get to Bristol Hotel. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Over 

P. S. — Will you be kind enough to let me know if Sir — Wat- 
kins has made arrangements for our departure on Wednesday next ; 
and if so, at what hour we will start, what hour arrive in Paris, 
and at what depot we will arrive. 

Letter No. Twenty-three. 

The Government had placed one of its largest vessels in 
European waters at the disposal of General Grant whenever 
it might suit his convenience to travel in that way. 

I was no longer able to be absent from my consular post, 
and when General Grant again left England, I parted com- 
pany with him for a while. Our correspondence now became 
more regular than ever before, so that what was a disadvant- 
age to me, may prove an advantage to the world ; for at this 
time he wrote to no one else so constantly and familiarly on 
subjects of general importance and interest. 



4 S6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Mr. Russell Young, the European correspondent of the 
New York Herald, accompanied General Grant during the 
winter of 1877-8. Mr. Young, although a warm political 
adherent and a personal admirer, had hardly before this been 
intimate with Grant ; but during this winter he became 
one of his closest companions and most valued friends. He 
went to the East with General Grant in 1878, and wrote an 
account of the journey, based upon his correspondence with 
the New York Herald on the way. In 1882, at Genera] 
Grant's urgent desire, President Arthur appointed Mr. Young 
Minister to China. 

The joke about rough weather in the letter which fol- 
lows shows that General Grant had already begun to like 
Young, for it was only his favorites that he ever bantered 
or teased. 

6, Eastern Terrace, 

Brighton, 

Oct. 22 d / 77. 

Dear General, — We leave here at 11 a. m. to-morrow; will 
be at Victoria Sta n at 12.30. It will not be necessary for you 
to send your carriage however unless you are recovered suffi- 
ciently to go yourself. We have a landau to meet us. I hope 
you will be able to go to Boulogne on the following clay, I 
have not availed myself of Sir Edward Watkin's invitation to 
take other guests with me, but if you will write a note to Russell 
Young saying that I would be pleased with his company T will be 
obliged. If the weather should be rough he might stop in Folke- 
stone until tin; boat returns. I wish you would write a letter for 
me to the Commander of the Med" Squadron saying that about 
the first of Dec r I will go to Spain and if he can have a vessel 
at Lisbon I will join him at that port about ten clays later. If 
preferable to meet me at some Mediterranean port I would be 
glad to have the com Jr inform me, to the care of Drexel. Ilargous 
& Co., Paris. 

As the time approaches I am anxious to get off to the Conti- 
nent, though I have no idea that I shall enjoy my visit there half 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



487 



so much as in England. With kind regards of myself and family, 
I am Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau, 

U. S. Consul Gen. 

Letter No. Twenty-four. 

As soon as General Grant had left England, I resumed 
my labors on his history. In November I wrote him, asking 
for information in regard to Mrs. Grant's visits to him dur- 
ing the war, and also for a detailed statement of the points 
he had visited in the preceding summer after I left him at 
Ragatz. This I wanted for some such purpose as that of the 
present volume. 

The last sentence in this letter refers to the promise of 
President Hayes to retain me at the Consulate General at 
London. Grant had heard that several aspirants were at- 
tempting to supplant me, and therefore had written to Gen- 
eral Sherman on the subject. 

Paris, Nov. 9 th / 77. 

Dear General, — In answer to your letter of the 5th inst. I 
cannot give you definite information as to dates when Mrs. Grant 
visited me at City Point. She went there however soon after my* 
Hd. Qrs. were established there. She returned to Burlington, N. J. 
after a short visit to arrange for the children's schooling, and 
went back to City Point where she remained, — with the excep- 
tion of one or two short visits to N. J. — until Lee's surrender 
and my return to the National Capital. Mrs. Grant made a short 
visit to me — the first time after leaving Cairo — at Corinth, next 
at Jackson, Tenn. then at Memphis where I left her when I went 
to Young's Point, at Young's Point one or two days before run- 
ning the Vicksburg Batteries, and at Vicksburg after the surren- 
der. She again visited me at Nashville. 

On leaving Ragatz we traveled to Bale, Switzerland, lay over 
Sunday there ; thence to Strasburg where we stopped five or six 
hours, visiting the Cathedral, fortifications, &c. ; thence to Metz 
for the night. The next day, until late in the afternoon, was spent 



\ 



4S8 GRANT IN PEACE. 

in visiting points of interest in and about Metz, and in the evening 
we went on a few hours travel to a little town — I have forgotten 
the name of it — near the border of Belgium. This was to save 
a too early start from Metz. The following day to Antwerp where 
we spent two days — Thence by steamer to London. 

I do not now think I shall visit Portugal. I have had some cor- 
respondence with Adm 1 . Le Roy — who has taken Worden's place — 
in regard to the route. He advises against sending a vessel to 
Lisbon at this season of the year on account of the insufficiency 
of the Harbor for large vessels, making it necessary to anchor out- 
side. My route will probably be through Madrid to Cadiz, thence 
up the Mediterranean. I will write a letter soon to Gen. Sherman 
and will take pains to say a word in the direction you mention, 
and will also remind him of the President's promise to me. 

YYe are all very well. I have seen all I want of Paris and but 
for engagements ahead would leave without much delay. 
With kind regards, 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grax r. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Twenty-five. 

The Porter who is mentioned is General Horace Porter. 
The letter referred to contained some political suggestions, 
in regard to General Grant ; of no consequence now. 

The Comte do Paris had called on General Grant at my 
house in London, and as he was leaving town the same day, 
the visit had not been returned. As General Grant was now 
in Paris, I had suggested to him to pay the civility at this time. 

Hotel Bristol, 

Paris, 
Nov. n ,h / 77. 
Dear General, — Lest you may want Porter's letter I return 
it. I wrote to Porter but did not tell him that you had submitted 
it to Pierrepont before sending it to me. I have nothing new to 
say tn you only that the (Cunt de Paris called on me soon after 
my arrival here. I was out at the time so I did not see him. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 489 

But I called at his house soon after — within a day or two — and 
found that he was living in the country about six hours, by rail, 
from Paris. I am to meet him at dinner on the 23d when he comes 
in for the night. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Twenty-six. 

This extremely interesting and important historical letter 
was written in reply to one from me, asking for information 
in regard to General Grant's visit to the North in August, 
1864, when he relieved Hunter, and placed Sheridan in 
command in the Valley of Virginia. When I made the inquiry 
I was preparing the account of Sheridan's Campaign. 

A large number of boxes, presents, addresses, freedoms of 
cities, etc., had been left by General Grant at my house when 
he quitted England, and I had inquired what disposition he 
wished made of them. 

Hotel Bristol, 

Paris, 
Nov. 17 th / 77. 

Dear General, — Your letter of yesterday reminds me that I 
neglected to answer yours about Sheridan. As you may remem- 
ber — or have data to show — I ordered first one then the second 
Div. of Sheridan's Cavalry Corps to the department commanded 
by Gen. Hunter. About the time the second division was going 
I visited General Hunter at Monocacy, where I found his army 
encamped promiscuously around over the fields in the neighbor- 
hood, and a very large amount of railroad rolling-stock concen- 
trated about there. I asked Gen. Hunter where the enemy was. 
He said he did not know, his orders kept coming so rapidly from 
Washington directing him to move here and there to keep between 
the enemy and the National Capital that he could do nothing 
towards locating or pursuing the enemy. I told him that I would 
find out where he was, and put the whole army, railroad trains and 
all, in motion for the Valley of Va. knowing full-well — no matter 
where the enemy might be at the time — that when the rich store- 



4 q GRANT IN PEACE. 

house of the Valley of Va. was threatened the enemy would be in 
the front of our Army to defend it. I then wrote out at Gen. 
Hunter's table, his instructions. After reading them to him I told 
him that Gen. Sheridan was in Washington and that I would order 
him up at once, and advised Gen. Hunter to put Sheridan in com- 
mand of the Army " in the field," and to select Dept. HdQrs. for 
himself wherever he liked, and retain general command himself. 
He said he thought I had better relieve him altogether because 
Gen. Halleck did not seem to repose the confidence in him he 
should have in a Dept. Commander. I then telegraphed Sheridan 
to go to Monocacy at once where I would remain to meet him. 
When he arrived I was at the station with the orders written out for, 
and addressed to, Gen. Hunter. The whole country about, — which 
had been filled but a few hours before with troops and trains of 
cars — was then entirely clear from all appearance of warlike 
preparation. In a short time Sheridan started for his new com- 
mand and I back to Washington. I believe this is all the infor- 
mation called for in your letter, which I have not now got. 

I sent all the addresses, boxes, &c, I had — excepting the box 
given by the City of London — to the U. S. before leaving London. 
The latter I deposited at the bank of Morton Rose & Co. I wish, 
when you are ready to do so, you would box up all the boxes, 
addresses, albums, &c, you have for me, have my name marked 
outside, and deposit them at the same place. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Gran r. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Twenty-seven. 
This letter also is made up in part of replies to inquiries 
from mc; some about Sheridan, others about the movements 
before Petersburg. I had also asked whether the General 
had thought to write to Mr. Pierrepont after his visit at 
the Minister's house, and the efforts of Pierrepont to make 
the stay in London successful. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 491 

Paris, France, 

Nov. 27 th / 77. 

Dear Badeau,— I met Mr. Lincoln at Ft. Monroe the day 
after the Mine explosion. I do not think anything was said about 
putting Sheridan in command of " the Army in the Field " under 
Hunter. Having sent the majority of Sheridan's command North 
I sent him also. He did not join it however until I telegraphed 
him from Monocacy, to Washington, to join me there. I remember 
distinctly requesting that Sheridan should be put in command of 
the forces in the field, and of receiving a reply to the effect that it 
was feared he was too young for so important a command. The 
magnanimous action of Gen. Hunter enabled me to give him the 
command while I was upon the field from which he started. 

I do not recollect anything that was talked about while in 
Washington, on my return from Monocacy. 

I wrote Pierrepont a letter in reply to one from him containing 
a request from the publishers of " Men of Mark," asking me to sit 
for a photograph for their work, adding my thanks for his hospi- 
talities while at his house. — I wrote to Sherman as I told you 
I would do, speaking of your services to me, and of the President's 
promise that you should not be disturbed. 

Your statement is correct that I was not on the field when 
Warren carried the Weldon road nor at his Ream's Station battle. 

I have given up my visit to Spain for this winter. On Satur- 
day of this week we start for Nice, stopping over Sunday at Lyons, 
and over Tuesday at Marseilles. From Nice we will take the 
Vandalia — naval vessel — and sail along the Mediterranean. 
Just our stopping places will be determined after we go aboard. 

All my family are well and join in best regards to you, and 
wishes for your health and prosperity. Whether Jesse goes with 
us will depend upon a letter he hopes to receive from Cornell 
University. I rather think however his mother will insist upon 
his going. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. Twenty-eight. 

This letter also is made up almost exclusively of replies 
to my inquiries. 

In one of my chapters I had compared Grant's method of 



4 02 GRANT IN PEACE. 

directing simultaneous campaigns at the East and West to 
" driving four-in-hand," and the figure had evidently pleased 
him, who was so good a driver. It is to this that he alludes 
in the concluding sentence below. 

It is unnecessary to call attention to his anxiety that I 
should complete my work. He knew at this time nothing 
of literary labor or historical research, and it probably seemed 
to him that I could have accomplished my task more prompt- 
ly. He learned something of the necessity for study and re- 
vision years afterward, when he was engaged upon his " Per- 
sonal Memoirs." 

Hotel Bristol, 

Paris, 
Nov. 30 th / 77. 

Dear General, — Your letters of the 28th, with enclosures, 
were received this morning. I took time to read your chapter of 
history with which I am much pleased, and find nothing to correct. 
Being my last day in Paris — for the present — I had much to do, 
calls to return, &c, and to dine out this evening. I could not 
answer until now — nearly midnight. 

The cattle raid took place while I was away from City Point. I 
cannot call to memory the time of my visit to Burlington to see 
after the children's schooling; but Mrs. Grant never went with me 
there before the night of Mr. Lincoln's assassination. 

The present Atty. Gen. Devens was, I think, the Cavalry Gen. 
Gen. Torbert can answer that question, and it is too late for me 
to ask him. He goes with me in the morning however and I will 
ask him then. 

I believe this answers all your questions in your last letters. 
For the next fifteen days my address will be Nice, France. After 
that anything directed to Drexel. Paris will reach me. But it is 
likely you will have my directions. 

I told you in a former letter that I had written to Sherman as 
I stated I would. I also wrote to Porter, but nothing affecting 
your status in your present position. Porter received my letter I 
know because Buck says in one of his last that it was shown to 
him. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 403 

I hope you will persevere in your work, and if " four-in-hand " 

goes slower than a " single team " that you will come down to the 

faster method of driving one at a time. 

With kindest regards, 

Your obt. svt, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeatj. 

Letter No. Twenty-nine. 

This letter is already given at the close of Chapter I, 
where it seemed pertinent. I had asked General Grant about 
material for the political memoir which I always intended 
should follow the military volumes. He looked forward to 
this sequel with an interest quite equal to that he felt in the 
earlier history, for he knew that his civil career had been 
harshly criticized, and he was anxious to have it vindicated. 
He offered me every assistance in his power, and furnished 
from time to time whatever material he could, in advance. 
Mr. Fish has been good enough to keep the promise made 
for him by General Grant ; and I am indebted to him for not 
a few statements in this volume which I could not otherwise 
have made so positively. 

Naples, 
December 18 th / 77. 

My Dear General, — Your letter and enclosed chapter of 
history were received here on our arrival yesterday. I have read 
the chapter and find no comments to make. It is no doubt as 
correct as history can be written, " except when you speak about 
me." I am glad to see you are progressing so well. Hope 
Vol. 2, will soon be completed and that the book will find large 
sale. No doubt but Gov. Fish will take great pleasure in aiding 
you in your next book. He has all the data so far as his own 
Dept. was concerned. It was his habit to sum up the proceedings 
of each day before leaving his office and to keep that information 
for his private journal. 

To-day we ascend Mt. Vesuvius, to-morrow visit Pompeii and 
Herculaneum. About Saturday, the 22d start for Palermo, thence 



494 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



to Malta where we will probably spend the 25th. From there 
we go to Alexandria and up the Nile. That is about as far as I 
have definitely planned, but think on our return from the Nile, we 
will go to Joppa and visit Jerusalem from there, possibly Damas- 
cus and other points of interest also, and take the ship again at 
Beyrout. The next point will be Smyrna, then Constantinople. 
I am beginning to enjoy traveling and if the money holds out or 
if Consolidated Va Mining stock does, I will not be back to the 
eastern states for two years yet. 

Should they — the stocks — run down on my hands and stop 
dividends, I should be compelled to get home the nearest way. 

Jesse is entirely well and himself again & enjoys his travels 
under these changed conditions very much. I wrote a letter to 
Porter a good while ago but have received no answer yet. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Thirty. 
The Babcock spoken of in this letter is the General Bab- 
cock who had been private secretary to Grant during the 
greater part of his second Administration. General Grant 
often spoke of him to me with great sympathy, and assured me 
that be believed him innocent of the charges brought against 
him. I was out of the country during all the period of 
Babcock's trouble and trial, and I asked General Grant about 
him when we met. He repeatedly declared that he would 
trust him with every pecuniary interest he had in the world. 
These letters contain constant messages to Babcock or refer- 
ences to him which would never have been made had Grant 
entertained a doubt of Babcock's innocence. 

( ' viro, Egypt, 

Feb. 4 th / 78. 

Deaf General, — Your letter of the 3d of Jany., enclosing 

a chapter of your book, and a letter from Babcock reached me 

some five or six days up the Nile from here. There was no use in 

answering earlier because the reply could not do better than to 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 495 

come by the boat I did. Our trip has been a most enjoyable one 
and the sights exceed in colossal grandeur the guide-book descrip- 
tions. One is kept in constant wonder how any people could 
have moved such immense blocks, in such large numbers, for so 
great a distance as most of them had to be moved, and put them 
in their places. The Khedive gave me a special boat, and sent 
with me one of his household, Sami Bey, an educated Egyptian 
who speaks English well — in fact he was educated in England — ■ 
and a German Egyptologist who has been a long time a student 
here, and who reads all the inscriptions in the Temples & Tombs 
with facility. His presence added much to the value of the 
journey. 

I have read the last chapter of your book over carefully and see 
nothing to correct except as to one little matter of fact. My recol- 
lection is that I recommended Sherman Sheridan and Hancock 
for promotion precisely as you say. Sherman and Hancock's 
names were promptly sent to the Senate, and they were con- 
firmed, but some one at Washington had failed up to that time to 
appreciate Sheridan as I did, and withheld his name. He was 
not nominated until I urged his promotion a second time. It is 
possible that he was given the same date when appointed that he 
would have had if appointed when first recommended. 

We leave here on the 7th to take up our travels again. I have 
given you our proposed route in a previous letter I believe. When 
you write to Babcock give him and his family my kindest regards. 
All my family join me in desiring to be kindly remembered to you. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Thirty-one. 
This letter refers to my account of Sherman's movements 
around Atlanta. 

Smyrna, Asia Minor, 

Feb. 2 2 d / 78. 
My Dear General : — On our arrival here this a. m. I found 
a mail, and with it your letter and the enclosed chapter. I have 
read it carefully and see no word to change. I am glad you have 



496 GRANT IN PEACE. 

submitted it to Sherman. He must feel pleased with the way you 
have treated his Atlanta Campaign, and if there is any error, in 
fact, he will correct it. He is at Washington where he has access 
to all the records and if there is any mistake in minor details he 
will be able to inform you. You no doubt received back the for- 
mer chapter sent from Cairo, Egypt. I am almost afraid to send 
any matter of importance, by mail, from this wretchedly governed 
country, and will keep this until a steamer is going to some more 
civilized part, or until I get to Athens. We go from here to Con- 
stantinople first. 

Our visit to Jerusalem was a very unpleasant one. The roads 
are bad, and it rained, blew and snowed all the time. We left 
snow six inches deep in Jerusalem. I wrote to Porter several 
months ago but have received no reply from him. He got my 
letter I know because Bucky wrote me that Porter showed it to 
him. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Thirty-two. 
This letter seems to require no explanation. 

Rome, Italy, 
March iz\ / 7S. 

My Dear General: — On arrival here I found a large mail, 
and in it yours enclosing a chapter of your book with letters from 
Sherman, Porter &: Babcock. I return the whole without com- 
ment, seeing nothing absolutely to correct or change. I also 
return two little slips previously received — at Athens I believe — 
which seem to me proper addendums. 

I observe from Porter's letter that he has made marginal 
notes on previous chapters. Of course I cannot tell what those 
notes were, but knowing that you have clone Sherman justice and 
nothing more, I suggest that you change nothing that relates to 
him or his movements. Young left this morning for London. 
He will be there about the time you receive this and will give you 
a graphic account of all we have seen. I will only state that my 
trip up the Nile, and in the Levant — all of my travels out of 
the beaten track — have been the most pleasant of my life. I 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



497 



should like to do the same thing over again next winter. Most 
every letter I get from the states — like Porter's to you — ask me 
to remain absent. They have designs for me which I do not con- 
template for myself. It is probable that I will return to the 
United States either in the fall or early next spring. 

Sherman did not say in his letter to me what the President 
replied when he notified him of my desire for your retention, and 
of his previous promise to me in the matter. I have no doubt but 
it is all right, and that you have been retained to this time solely on 
account of that promise. You know there has been a terrible 
pressure by Reformers for your place. Mrs. Grant and Jesse 
desire to be most kindly remembered to you. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau, 

Consul Gen 1 of the U. S. 

Letter No. Thirty-three. 
• I paid General Grant a visit at Rome on his return to 
Europe, and wrote in advance asking him to allow his courier 
to secure rooms for me. 

Rome, Italy, 
March 3 o ,h / 78. 

Dear General, — I have your letter of yesterday. I will 
instruct Hartog to execute your commission at once. I have 
written to you since my arrival here and returned the last of your 
manuscript. 

We leave here two weeks from to-day to go to Florence for a 
week, thence to Venice for about the same time, then to Milan 
and on to Paris where we expect to arrive on the 10th of May. 
We will remain there until about the middle of July and make 
our journey North, to Sweden & Norway after that. As I shall 
see you so soon I will say nothing of what we have seen, or of the 
recent news from home. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

32 



4 qS grant in peace. 

Letter No. Thirty-four. 

This memorandum was written while I was at Rome, and 
sent to my rooms. It accompanied a letter to Russell 
Young, which General Grant wished me to see before it was 
forwarded. 

Read this and mail if you approve. If not, retain until 
to-morrow and make your suggestions to me. Add a note if you 
choose to Young and send with mine. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Thirty-five. 
The Comte de Paris wrote to me about this time asking 
for information in regard to the surrender of Yicksburg. 
General Pemberton, the rebel commander at Vicksburg, had 
published an account of that event very different from mine, 
which I had obtained from Grant, and the Comte had asked 
me if I wished to make any reply. I forwarded his letter to 
General Grant, who wrote as follows on the back of another 
letter he was sending to me. 

To General A. Badeau, 

U. S. Consul General, 

London, Eng. 
I return Pemberton's letter. Your statement of the circum- 
stances attending the Vicksburg surrender are as absolutely 
correct as it can well be made. I presume Bowen did ask the 
interview between P. and myself without authority. I did not 
propose or submit to the settlement of terms by a reference to 
Commissioners. Finding that we were about to separate without 
coming to an agreement Bowen — who seemed very anxious 
about an agreement — proposed that he and others of the Reb 
Army, and ('.en. A. J. Smith and some others of our Army who 
were present at the time, should consult and see if they could not 
agree upon terms which Pemberton and I would accept. I 
declined that and the terms were finally arranged between us 
through a correspondence which extended late into the night of 
the 3d of July, / 63. U. S. Grant. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 499 

Letter No. Thirty-six. 

With this letter General Grant enclosed the reply to the 
Comte de Paris above given. He also refers to my account 
of the explosion of Burnside's Mine at Petersburg. 

While I was at Rome with General Grant I was laid up 
for a week or more with a lameness in a wounded leg. I had 
not been able to obtain a room in the same hotel with him, 
and he came to see me and sit with me daily until I 
recovered. During this period I wrote a letter to the New 
York Herald contradicting certain statements that had been 
published by ex-Secretary Welles of Lincoln's and Johnson's 
Cabinets, and General Richard Taylor of the Confederate 
army, in regard to the Wilderness campaign. This paper 
announced that it was written with Grant's sanction, and in 
fact it was read and revised by him in advance of publication. 
It is to this that he refers in the following letter. 

When General Grant wrote that he was " tired " of " going 
all the time," he had just returned from Rome, Florence, 
and Venice ; but from Cairo he had written : " Our trip has 
been a most enjoyable one, and the sights exceed in colossal 
grandeur the guide-book descriptions." The contrast in his 
impressions and emotions is characteristic. The works of 
art and even the antiquities of Italy were tedious to him, 
while the Egyptian monuments excited his liveliest interest. 
In the same way his letters from China and Japan and India 
were full of comments on the people and institutions, but 
European civilization seemed to provoke only comparatively 
languid remarks. Perhaps it was too much like our own. 

Paris, France, 

May 19 th , / 78. 
My Dear General, — I return you Porter's, and the Count de 
Paris' letters and the part of chapter of your book. I feel very 
sure you have the Vicksburg surrender right, and see nothing 
wrong in the printed matter you send. If there is anything it is 
in not showing the failure of Warren more distinctly. But that I 



;oo 



GRANT IN TEACE. 



think you did in the chapter of which this is to form a part — or a 
correction. I am very glad you sent on your letter to the Herald 
in answer to Taylor and Welles. Young's, without yours, would 
not have much point. I become responsible for yours, and I can 
very well afford it because Taylor's was a deadly attack upon two 
now dead — Lincoln & Stanton — and Welles upon two dead per- 
sons — Stanton and Halleck — all untrue — the attacks — and I 
feel it a duty to relieve all three of aspersions so unjust to their 
memories. 

We are going all the time and I am becoming very tired of it. 
Think we will leave several weeks earlier than we expected. Our 
contemplated route, as you know, is to the Hague, Copenhagen, 
through Sweden, Norway, then back to St. Petersburg, through 
Prussia & Austria to quarters for next winter. 

All send regards to you. I shall write to Babcock in a few 
days. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Thirty-seven. 

General Townsend, then Adjutant-General of the Army, 
had reported to the Secretary of War, without due examina- 
tion, and without any inquiry of me, that I did not come 
within the provisions of the law allowing certain retired 
officers to accept diplomatic rank, and in consequence my 
name had been stricken from the retired list of the army. But 
I at once laid proof before the Department, through General 
Sherman the General-in-Chief, that Townsend was wrong, and 
the order dropping me had been promptly rescinded. General 
Grant, as I have elsewhere stated, was very much interested 
in this matter, for I had been retired by his order as Presi- 
dent, to enable me to take a diplomatic position. 

On the death of the Duchess of Argyll I had suggested 
that the General should write to the Duke, who had enter- 
tained him at Inverary. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



501 



Paris, France, 

May 29 th / 78. 

My Dear General, — I am just in receipt of your letter of 
the 27 th — with enclosures — and hasten to answer so as to return 
the papers you want without loss. I am certain you need not feel 
alarmed about your position on the retired list. But I should 
not trouble myself about Townsend. He is badly beaten as the 
matter stands. I wrote to Babcock since my arrival in Paris. 
My correspondence is large, and delays occur sometimes ; but when 
I sit to it I bring up all arrears — that I intend to bring up. I get 
letters from persons with whom I have never corresponded, desir- 
ing answers, but whose letters I do not answer. B.'s was not one 
of that class. 

I wrote the Duke of Argyll a letter of condolence the very 
moment I heard of the death of the Duchess — day before 
yesterday I think. 

We leave here on the 15th of June for our northern trip. 
Jesse, you know, goes back. He & Nellie leave on Friday — 
day after to-morrow — for London. He will sail on the 4th of 
June from Liverpool. 

With kindest regards of all, I am, as ever, very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Thirty-eight. 
I had been unwell and despondent about my health 
when General Grant wrote me the letter which follows, to 
encourage me: 

Paris, France, 

June i st , / 78. 
My Dear General, — I am much obliged for your kind invita- 
tion for Mrs. Grant & I to visit you, but we will not be able to 
accept. In two weeks we start on our Northern trip and will not 
return until the Autumn. We will then probably visit Spain and 
settle down about Nov. for the winter. Where I have not yet 
determined, but either here Nice or Southern Italy. 

You must keep up your courage. There is no reason why you 



502 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



may not have many years before you yet. I return Porter's letter 
which I have read with pleasure ; also one from Babcock which I 
find on my table. Yours as ever, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Thirty-nine. 
This refers to certain passages in Chapter XXV of my 
History of Grant's Campaigns. 

Paris, France, 

June 7 th , / 78. 
My Dear General: — I return your last chapter, or part of 
chapter, without comment. It seems to me to be very good, and 
calculated to call to the minds of some of the Northern gushers 
of to-day for peace and fraternity between the sections, of the 
terms we might have expected had the South been successful. I 
am getting tired of Paris and feel almost impatient for the day — 
the 14 of June — of our departure to arrive. 

Mrs. Grant joins me in best regards to you, and in wishing you 
good health and happiness. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Forty. 

This of course was written to aid me in my account of 
Sheridan's Operations in the Valley of Virginia. 

The "letter to the Herald" is the one I wrote at Grant's 
desire, referred to in his earlier letter of May 19, 1878. 

Mrs. Robeson was the wife of Grant's Secretary of the 
Navy. 

Legation of the United States, 

At the Hague. 

June 16"/ 78. 

Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th, with enclosure, was 

received before my departure from Paris. But I had not time to 

do more than read your letter before leaving, so brought the 

whole here to examine and approve or otherwise. I have made 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



503 



marginal notes in pencil of all I have to say. I do not think 
there is anything to strike out, nor anything to add except what 
you can get from the notes referred to. You may recollect that 
when I visited Sheridan, at Charlestown I had a plan of battle 
with me to give him. But I found him so ready to move — plan 
and all — that I gave him no order whatever except the authority 
to move. He is entitled to all the credit of his great victory, and 
it established him in the confidence of the President & Sec. 
of War as a commander to be trusted with the fullest discretion 
in the management all the troops under him. Before that, while 
they highly appreciated him as a commander to execute they 
felt a little nervous about giving him too much discretion. 

We leave here on Thursday for Amsterdam ; Saturday for 
Hanover, Monday following for Berlin. How long I will stay in 
Berlin I cannot say but probably until the following Saturday. 
We will then go to Copenhagen, breaking the journey at Hamburg. 
You might send anything you have for me, direct according to this 
programme. We will stay in Copenhagen for several days and 
then go direct to Norway, thence to Sweden. 

I am glad to see that you are getting on so well with Vol. 
II. It looks now as if it might be out the coming fall. 

Your letter to the Herald, and the interview, have been copied 
everywhere in the states much to the gratification of friends and 
the confusion of enemies. I think you will have no cause of 
regret for writing your letter. 

With Mrs. Grant's and my kindest regards. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

P. S. — Remember both of us to Mrs. Robeson if she is still in 
London. Mrs. Grant & I regret that we did not meet her before 
our trip north. 

Letter No. Forty-one. 

Russell Young had published in The Nezv York Herald 
some of General Grant's conversations, in which the General 
made one or two statements in regard to losses, which were 
inaccurate, and which he would undoubtedly have corrected 



504 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



upon reference to the records. I had written to caution him 
about allowing his talk to be printed without revision by some 
one conversant with the subject. This letter is his reply. 

Young of course acted with the best intentions, and 
thought, very naturally, that whatever General Grant said 
about the war must be authoritative. But no man's memory 
is infallible, and General Grant's more than once played him 
false. What I wanted was for him to make no statement for 
print on important historical subjects till he had verified his 
own recollections. 

Vienna, Austria, 

Aug. 2 2 d , 1878. 
My Dear General, — I have your letter of the 17th with 
chapter enclosed, which I have read and have no comments to 
make upon. I agree with you in the impropriety of the publica- 
tion of my "table talk" upon military or other matters. There 
is not a word I said which was intended for publication or even 
to be taken down. But traveling together as long as Young & 
I did conversation naturally covered a good many subjects civil 
& military. Many things I said explained matters, or put a new 
light upon them to Young, so that he noted them down. He 
wrote them out afterward and gave me the manuscript to read — 
about twice as much as is published. I put it in my trunk and 
forgot it for several months. I afterward read it and found it in 
the main correct, erasing however all relating to Civil Administra- 
tion. Young makes an error in stating my losses from the Rapid 
Ann to the James River which I did not notice in the Manuscript. 
I did not say that about 39,000 would cover my losses in killed, 
wounded, & missing. What I did say was that Welles, Taylor & 
Co. would soon have it pass into history that we had a 100.000 men 
killed in getting to the James river, when we could have gone by 
boat, without loss, and ignoring the fact that Lee sustained any 
loss whatever. That 40,000, I thought about 39,000, — would cover 
such losses, but that the reports from time to time would show a 
much greater loss. I explained that after a battle every Capt. 
Col. and Brigade Commander liked to show his own losses as 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 505 

large as possible. Consequently we had a full report of every 
man who had a scratch as wounded. Many men would be 
reported before we got to the end of the campaign, in that 
category, two, three or more times, yet never lost any time. In 
the same way many men would be reported missing who would 
afterward turn up. Others had fallen into the hands of the enemy, 
unhurt, and would be exchanged for. I made a full statement of 
how these reports were made up. Young thought he was doing 
right in this publication, and thinks now that he has done me 
good service. I do not think it will do any harm, but I will 
caution him for the future. I have no idea now of making the 
tour around the world, but will go back home in the spring. We 
will stay in Austria through September and then go to Spain and 
probably Portugal. I will then have seen every country in 
Europe and will be ready to sit down for the winter. Mrs. 
Grant joins me in kindest regards. Very Truly Yours. 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Forty-two. 

I had prepared in advance a sketch of my account of the 
origin of Sherman's March to the Sea, and submitted it to 
General Grant, and this interesting letter contains his reply. 

He continues the references to the publications of Young 
already mentioned. 

Ischl, Austria, 

Aug. 29 th , / 78. 
Mv Dear General, — Your letter of the 23d of August — here- 
with returned — reached me just before leaving Vienna. The out- 
fine you propose for your history of " the March to the Sea " is 
exactly right. Follow it and give all the letters and dispatches in 
the body of the narrative. When you have it in type send a copy 
to Sherman. You have certainly divided the honors of the cam- 
paign correctly. The particular campaign made was Sherman's 
conception and execution. Supposing that I was to remain in the 
West, in command, I had conceived earlier a different Campaign, 
leading practically to the same result. Subsequent events would 



506 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



have modified that plan beyond doubt, even had I remained. 
Events shaped Sherman's campaign. 

Your book will necessarily be criticised, but criticism will do 
no harm so long as your facts are right. My opinion is that 
Young's publication of " table talks " will add many thousands to 
the number of readers of your book. People will look to that as 
the authentic views which I entertain. The other will be looked 
upon as hastily noted recollections of what was said in conversa- 
tion without the data at hand to speak with entire accuracy. 

I shall remain here some eight days more and then in Salz- 
burg for ten days or more. My next address after that will be in 
Paris though but for a short time. 

I wrote YVashburne a letter telling him the outrageous stories 

had told me about him * * * * 

Very Truly Yours, 

Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Forty-three. 

This letter continues the supply of information Grant 
was furnishing me in regard to the history of Sherman's 
March to the Sea. I had written for an explanation of cer- 
tain dispatches which he could not recall. It was a singular 
situation : he was writing to me from Paris, Rome, Egypt, and 
from Swiss villages, accounts of his instructions to Sherman 
and Sheridan, his own battles on the James, and the straw gy 
in Georgia and the Valley of Virginia, and always insisting 
that I should do full justice to his great lieutenants, even at 
the sacrifice of some of the credit that was often ascribed to 
himself. No reader can have failed to remark the magnanimity 
toward Sherman and Sheridan which these letters display ; — 
letters written to fix, so far as he was able, the status that all 
three were to occupy in history ; for my work he fully 
intended should be the only authorized expression of his 
views on the war. 

Ragatz, Switzerland, 

Sept. iS'\ 1S7S. 

My Dear General, — Your letter of the 12th of Sept. 
reached me at this place last evening. I have no recollection 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 507 

whatever of the dispatches you speak of between Sherman and 
myself about the 4th of October, / 64 and my subsequent dis- 
patch saying that his movement should be independent of mine. 
I remember that I sent a ship-load of provisions to meet him on 
the seacoast wherever he might come out. 

I will be in Paris at the Hotel Liverpool, on the 25th of this 
month to remain there until about the 10th of Oct. when I 
expect to start for Spain. Expecting to see you so soon I will write 
no more except to say that I have lost twenty-five pounds weight, 
while in perfect health and without doing anything to bring about 
such a result. It makes me feel much more comfortable. 

Yours Truly, 

Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Forty-four. 
I had seen a statement in print that either Mr. Fish or 
Mr. Bancroft Davis intended to compose a history of Grant's 
Civil Administration, and wrote to inquire if he was acquainted 
with such a purpose on their part ; as it would of course con- 
flict with my own plan of a political history to follow the 
military one. This letter is General Grant's reply. Several 
times he was approached by letter, or in person, by writers 
who proposed a work of this character and requested his 
sanction or assistance ; but he always replied that he was 
pledged to give all the aid and authority he could in such an 
undertaking exclusively to me. 

I had learned that several retired army officers holding 
civil positions were drawing retired pay in addition to that 
of their other offices, and I had discussed with him the propriety 
of my applying for such pay. 

It is unnecessary to call attention to his constant anxiety 
for the completion of his military history. 

Paris, France, Oct. 3 d / 78. 
Dear General, — Your letter of the 1st is just at hand. I 
am sorry you are too unwell to come over before my departure. 
The latter part of next week we start on our trip through Spain 



508 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



eV Portugal. As we will probably visit Algiers, and possibly some 
other points in the Mediterranean before returning to Paris, we 
may not return here before December. I have no knowledge of 
an intention on the part of either Gov. Fish or Judge Davis to 
write a civil history of my Civil Administration. If they should do 
so it would probably be confined chiefly to matters relating to the 
State Dept, foreign relations, &c, and would in that event 
be a great help to the preparation of the volume you propose to 
write. 

I would not push the matter of back pay while holding, or 
wishing to hold the Consul-Generalship. It would furnish a pre- 
text for your removal. I think you ought to hurry up Volume II, 
however and get advantage of the present desire to collect war 
reminiscences. We are all well. Very Truly Yours, 

Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Consul- General, ete. 

Letter No. Forty-five. 
It had been repeatedly stated by hostile critics that Grant 
intended after the battle of the Wilderness, to march on 
Gordonsville, in Central Virginia ; and I had found the dis- 
patches on which those assertions were probably founded. 
I knew, because I was with him at the time, that he had no 
intention to make this movement, but I wrote to ask his own 
explanation or construction of the orders. His reply, it will 
be seen, corroborated my own memory. These confidential 
communications to me, I have said before, are always given 
in full, exactly as he wrote them, even with the little inac- 
curacies of familiar correspondence. He never cautioned me 
about their use, although he knew that I sought them for the 
purposes of my history, and I have thought it better to pub- 
lish them in all their plainness, and sometimes with criticisms 
that may be painful to others, rather than subject myself to 
the charge of mutilating his utterances. Grant, indeed, never 
wrote or spoke a word suggesting that I should keep back, 
or misrepresent, or cover up, any fact, or act, or statement, 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



509 



except the two or three utterances in favor of leniency which 
these letters contain. This of course did not prevent his 
making secret communications. 

Lisbon, Portugal, 

Oct. 27 th , / 78. 

Dear Badeau, — Your letter of the 17th came to hand in 
Madrid where I was so busy that I did not get to write a 
letter to any one. I can give no explanation of the dispatches you 
speak of from Spottsylvania, of 10th & nth of May, / 64, to 
Meade directing him to be prepared in a certain event to move to 
Gordonsville. The only thing is that I had in mind the possibility, 
if things favored it, of moving by my right flank instead of the 
left as we had been doing before. Gordonsville must have been 
put in without much reflection knowing that if we did move to the 
right events would determine where we would march to with[out] 
any reference to the original orders. 

We arrived here this a. m., at five o'clock having been in the 
cars two nights and one day from Madrid, without getting out once 
by the way for meals. Spain may contain much of interest to see, 
but the accommodations for travel are horrible. 

Yours as ever, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No, Forty-six. 

The letter from General Sherman here spoken of was full 
of indications of his loyalty to Grant, and I forwarded it to 
my chief, who I knew would be gratified. 

The passage about the publication of my history was in 
answer to certain inquiries of mine. It had been suggested 
that the appearance of the work at that time might seem 
intended to affect the Presidential nominations, and I sought 
General Grant's views so that I might conform to them. His 
reply is characteristic. He hardly ever allowed his actions 
to be affected, or his course to be induced, by what he sup- 
posed would be said of either ; he had learned, as most men 
do who have careers, that comment is apt to be incorrect, 
and that the opinion and the talk of to-day are, more often 
than not, reversed by the verdict of to-morrow. 



c I0 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Dec. 19, / 78. 

My Dear General, — I have your letter of the 17th, with 
Sherman's to you enclosed. I also received one from you at Pau, 
and one before the present one here in Paris. I should have 
written to you earlier but I found so many letters to answer that I 
deferred. 

It is impossible yet for me to say when we will get off for our 
trip around the world. The steamer on which we are to sail left 
the states on the 10th of this month. If she crosses the Atlantic 
under sail it will be about the last of Jan y before she will be 
ready for us. If she steams over it may be as early as the 12th. 
Mrs. Grant & I want to see Nellie before we go, and have 
written asking her to come here. She answers fearing that she 
may not be able to come, but has written Mr. Sartoris, who is in 
Ireland, for his opinion. If she does not come we will likely take 
a run over to London for a few days. I will let you know by tele- 
graph if we go. I shall be very glad, if we do not go there, to 
see you here. 

I am very glad to see Sherman's letter to you. It only shows 
him in the light I always regarded him ; a warm friend as I surely 
am of his. 

I do not see what the publication of your book, at any particu- 
lar time, can have to do with the formation of public opinion as to 
political objects. It has been a long time in preparation and the 
public has known all about it. If the work should be withheld 
the public might say that there was an object in that. I would go 
on as fast as possible and when the work is ready publish it : let 
the public say what they please. 

Our trip through Spain, like all others, was very delightful. 
We received marked attention from the officials everywhere, and 
no place more marked than while we were at Gibraltar. Lord & 
Lady Napier, with the officers of the garrison, seemed not to 
be able to do too much for us. 

Hoping to see you either in London or Paris before our depar- 
ture, I am as always, Yours Very Truly. 

Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. Grant. 

Consul-Gen. of the U. S., 

London, Eng. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. r r j 

Letter No. Forty-seven. 

I had been requested by prominent Irishmen to ask 
General Grant to visit their country, and accordingly wrote 
to him on the subject. 

The Richmond was the naval vessel placed at his disposal 
by the Government of the United States. 

Mr. Borie was Grant's first Secretary of the Navy, and 
one of his most intimate and valued friends. He was in poor 
health at this time, and it was thought that travel might 
benefit him. He was especially invited by General Grant to 
accompany him to the East. 

The last portion of this letter has already been partly ex- 
plained. I had been informed by persons intimate with the 
English Royal Family that a letter of condolence on the 
death of the Princess Alice would not be unacceptable, and 
had therefore suggested it to General Grant; but he pre- 
ferred not to write one. 

Dec 24 th / 78. 

Dear Gen., — I have just this moment rec'd yours of the 
21st. I hasten to answer so that you may respond to such 
inquiries as you are receiving the best you can. Having visited 
Europe very thoroughly, except Ireland, I did think of running 
over there for a hasty trip before my departure for the east. It 
is extremely problematical whether I can go. I must stay here 
until I know all about the time to expect the Richmond in the 
Mediterranean ; where I am to board her ; how much she is to 
await my orders, &c. The mail which brings news to the 10th of 
Dec. — the day the Richmond was to sail from America — brings 
me no news on the subject. It is certain that I cannot go to 
Ireland — that is, leave here for there — before the second of 
Jan y . Nellie & Mr. Sartoris come here this week to remain with 
us until our departure for the east. We will not go to London 
therefore unless I should go to Ireland. You had better come 
over here therefore, and, if you get this in time, why not come 
with Young this week ? 

Mr. Borie sails on Thursday, the 26th, by the steamer Ohio 



512 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



from Phil 8 . He will accompany me on the whole trip, much 
to both Mrs. Grant's and my delight. 

Before your letter suggesting a letter of condolence to the 
Prince of Wales for the death of Princess Alice, and requesting a 
word about you in a letter of thanks you supposed I would write 
to the President for his tender of a ship to take me east, I had 
written such a letter — as the latter — but to the Sec. of the Navy, 
from whom the tender came, without allusion to the President 
On the whole I thought it out of place — in the estimation of the 
American citizen — to write to the Queen, or for her. 

We will be glad to see you over here at such time as you can 
best come before my departure. By the second of Jan y I will 
know positively whether I can go to Ireland. 

With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant & myself, 

Yours Very Truly, 

U. S. Graxt. 

Letter No. Forty-eight. 

I accompanied General Grant on his visit to Ireland, which 
lasted about a week. He went first to Dublin, where he was 
entertained by the Viceroy, (the Duke of Marlborough), at the 
Vice-Regal Lodge, and at dinner by the Chief Secretary ; 
thence he proceeded to Belfast, Londonderry, and the North ; 
but he was unable to go to the Vest or South ; the civic 
authorities of Cork refused to invite him officially, because of 
some utterances hostile to the Catholics while he was Presi- 
dent, which those functionaries resented. This was the only 
instance of the kind that occurred to Grant in Europe or 
Asia. Nearly every city in the United Kingdom had wel- 
comed him officially and presented him with its freedom, but 
Cork preferred to be singular. 

Paris, France, 

Dec. 28 th / 78. 
Dear General, — I have again concluded to visit Ireland be- 
fore my departure for the East. General Noyes & I will leave 
here on the 2d of Jany. without servants, and only hand-bags, 
for a Hying visit through the principal cities. We expect to be in 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 5 1 3 

Dublin the next morning after we leave, only passing from one 
station to the other in London. We will not stop more than one 
day at any place in Ireland, and must be back here by Saturday, 
the nth of January. You might make your arrangements to join 
us in London on our return and come to Paris with us. 

I have no information yet of the sailing of the Richmond, and 
can form no idea of the time of my departure. I cannot leave 
Paris however until after the 15th. Mr. Borie, who goes with me, 
will want a little rest here, and if Fred goes he cannot arrive in 
Paris before the 15th. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gcti. A. Badeau, U. S, A. 

P. S. — Since sealing this a cablegram informs me that Fred. 
sails in the Britannic on Saturday, to-day; Mr. Borie not until 
next week. U. S. G. 

Letter No. Forty-nine. 

In passing through London on his return from Ireland, 
General Grant was met by Mr. Welsh, the new American 
Minister, who held a reception for him. He then proceeded 
to Paris, where he was joined by his son, Colonel Grant, and 
Mr. Borie. I returned with him to Paris, and accompanied 
him to Marseilles, from which place he sailed for the East. 
After this I did not see him again till the spring of 1880, but 
in the meantime he kept up a more animated correspondence 
with me than ever. 

His first letter was from Bombay. The Mr. Welsh spoken 
of was the United States Minister at London, and Mr. Hop- 
pin was the First Secretary of Legation. 

Bombay, India, 

Feby. 17 th / 79. 
My Dear Badeau, — We reached this place on the 13th after 
a most pleasant voyage. From Suez to Bombay the temperature 
was just right to keep all the passengers on deck from the hour 
of rising in the morning to the hour of retirement in the evening. 
The sky was clear and the sea so smooth that you might almost 
33 



5H 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



play billiards on deck. The reception here has been most cordial 
from the officials, foreign residents, Parsee merchants and the 
better to do Hindoo natives. Myself and party were invited to 
occupy the Government House, where we are now staying, and 
where we have received princely hospitalities. Young has de- 
scribed the whole thing very fully in his article for the paper. I 
hope you will see it. 

To-day we start for the interior where we expect to see more 
characteristic phases of Indian life & habits. Bombay has much 
in common with European cities. It is a manufacturing and com- 
mercial city. The old — Native — portion of the city however is 
different from anything I have yet seen either in Egypt or Turkey. 
Like in New York city we may find people from every known part 
of the world. 

The party are all well and join me in kindest regards to you. 
Please present my compliments to Mr. &: Miss Welsh and Mr. 
Hoppin. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Fifty. 

Calcutta, March 15 th / 79. 

Dear Badeau, — We have now done India from Bombay to 
Delhi and back to this place. We leave here to-morrow morning 
for Singapore, by a regular steamer, the Richmond not having put 
in an appearance yet. Our visit to India has been a most delight- 
ful one. The English people have exceeded themselves in 
hospitalities. No where but at one place have we been permitted 
to stop at a hotel, and there — Jubulpore — it was because no 
official had the spare room for our accommodation. The railroad 
officials have been equally attentive giving us all through India 
two special cars, provided with every convenience, including bath- 
rooms, for our party of six. 

I have a letter from a cousin of mine who says that she has 
been informed that a brother of her grandfather, by the name 
of Mordecai Levy died in London some fifty years ago leaving a 
large fortune to her grandfather, and that the will was recorded, as 
she says, in parliament. Will you do me the favor to have some 
one examine whether they can find any such record. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 5 1 5 

Mrs. Grant and all my party desire to be specially remembered 
to you. I will continue to drop you a line occasionally, but you 
must not expect much to interest you. Very Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Fifty-one. 

The reference at the beginning of this letter is to the 
account of Early's failure in Sheridan's campaign in the 
Valley, in my Military History. 

The long interval between this letter and its predecessor 
makes me believe that some of General Grant's communica- 
tions miscarried. He was at this time hardly ever a month 
without writing to me. 

The reference to the British Government has been ex- 
plained in Chapter XXXV. 

Nagasaki, Japan, 

June 22 J / 79 

My Dear General, — The two enclosed chapters were received 
at Tientsin China just on the eve of my departure from there, so 
I brought them here to mail. The last chapter I think is one of 
the best in the book. It shows Early in an unpleasant light and 
shows the Southern character — for lying — as it should be shown. 
I have no corrections to suggest in either chapter. 

My visit through China was a pleasant one though the country 
presents no attractions to invite the visitor to make the second trip. 
From Canton to Peking my reception by the Civil & Military 
authorities was the most cordial ever extended to any foreigner no 
matter what his rank. The fact is Chinese like Americans better, 
or rather perhaps hate them less, than any other foreigners. The 
reason is palpable. We are the only power that recognize their 
right to control their own internal affairs. My impression is that 
China is on the eve of a great revolution that will land her among 
the nations of progress. They have the elements of great wealth 
and great power too and not more than a generation will pass 
before she will make these elements felt. 

I received your letter suggesting that I should write to Mr. 
Welsh on my departure from the last British Colony, in time to 



C!6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

have written from Hong Kong. But I did not do so, because I 
did not feel like making acknowledgment to the Govt, for any 
exhibition of respect on their part while I do gratefully acknowl- 
edge the most marked hospitality & kindness from all British 
officials in the east. I do not care to write the reasons for dis- 
tinguishing between the people — official & unofficial of England 
and the Govt. But I will tell you some day. 

We arrived at this place yesterday & found the most exten- 
sive arrangements for our reception. The Japanese have made 
my party their guests during our stay in the country and have 
a house here, at Kobi and Tokio, fitted up for our accommodation. 

Mrs. Grant, Fred & Young — dubbed the Commodore — 
join me in kindest regards to you. It looks now as if we would 
leave for home about the ioth of August. But I may change my 
mind and go back to visit Australia, and some other places left 
out, and go back by the Sandwich Islands. In this case we will 
not reach San Francisco before March. 

Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Fifty-two. 
I see nothing to add to this letter by way of explanation 
or elucidation. It tells its own story. 

Tokio, Japan, 

July i6"/79- 

My Dear General: — Your letter inclosing the chapter on 
Hatcher's Run reached me last night. I have read it carefully 
and see nothing to correct unless it might be to let Warren off a 
little lighter. But in that respect do as you please for I think you 
are entirely correct. 

We have now been in Japan for nearly a month. The country 
is most beautiful and the people charming. There is nothing they 
are prouder of than their institutions of learning, from their com- 
mon schools up to the highest college, including their Military and 
\ LvaJ schools. There is no country where the arrangements are 
more complete for giving every child, male and female, a fair com- 
mon school education than in Japan. Their higher institutions 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 517 

compare favorably with those of the oldest countries of the highest 
civilization. The better class of males wear the European costume 
and many of the ladies are beginning to adopt it also. From 
China to Japan the change is very great both in the people and 
country. But I thought I saw germs of progress in China. The 
country has great resources, and a wonderfully industrious, ingen- 
ious & frugal people. The end of this century will probably see 
China looming up. 

To-morrow we go to the interior for a week or two. After 
that 1 shall visit some other points of interest in the country and 
set sail for home on the 27th of August. I dread going home but 
must do so. 

Remember Mrs. Grant and I to Mr. Welsh and his family with 
him, and be assured of our kind regards for yourself. Young & 
Fred join me in this. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Fifty-three. 
The beginning of this letter refers to the chapter in my 
History in which I described Grant's life at City Point. — The 
remarks about Japan were no more enthusiastic than his 
conversation always became whenever he spoke of his visit 
to that country. The impression made upon him there was 
more vivid than in any European or Asiatic region. He 
never tired of describing the courtesies he had received, or 
the character of the- inhabitants and the marvelous advance 
in their civilization within so short a period. 

Tokio, Japan, 

August i st / 79. 
My Dear General : — Your letter enclosing the within chapter 
reached me in the interior of Japan — at Nikko — just the evening 
before I started on my return here. The chapter is so personal 
to myself that I can say nothing about it. But I have corrected 
two or three little errors of fact. My visit to Japan has been the 
most pleasant of all my travels. The country is beautifully culti- 
vated, the scenery is grand, and the people, from the highest to 



cjS grant in peace. 

the lowest, the most kindly and the most cleanly in the world. 
My reception and entertainment has been the most extravagant I 
have ever known, or even read, of. But as Young will probably 
give a full description of which you will read not long after receiv- 
ing this, I will not attempt it. You speak of only receiving two 
letters from me since my departure from Marseilles ! Probably 
since your last letter you have received two or three others. At 
all events I have returned all your chapters with letters accom- 
panying, and hope you have received them. I assure you that I 
am always glad to hear from you even if I do not answer as 
promptly as I might. 

On the 27th of this month we sail for San Francisco. At the 
end of the first year abroad I was quite homesick, but determined 
to remain to see every country in Europe at least. Now at the 
end of twenty-six months I dread going back, and would not if 
there was a line of steamers between here and Australia. But I 
shall go to my quiet little home in Galena and remain there until 
the cold drives me away. Then I will probably go south — possi- 
bly to Havana & Mexico — to remain until April. Mrs. Grant, 
Fred, & Young desire to be specially remembered to you. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Genl A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Fifty-four. 
The following letter requires no comment. 

Tokio, Japan, 

August 25 th / 79. 

My Dear General, — My visit to this interesting country — 
and abroad — is now drawing to a close. On the 2d of Sept 
we sail for San Francisco. Our reception and entertainment in 
Japan has exceeded anything preceding it. Young's account will 
not be very full until his book comes out because two firms have 
already pirated his work and advertise cheap editions compiled 
from his letters to the Herald. Since learning the fact he has 
written but little for the paper intended for the book. 

This is a most beautiful country, and a most interesting people. 
The progress they have made in their changed civilization within 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



519 



twelve years is almost incredible. They have now Military and 
Naval Academies, Colleges, Academies, Engineering schools, 
schools of science and free schools, for male & female, as thoroughly 
organized, and on as high a basis of instruction, as any country 
in the world. Travel in the interior is as safe for an unarmed, 
unprotected foreigner as it is in the New England States. Much 
safer from extortion. This is marvelous when the treatment their 
people — and all eastern peoples — receive at the hands of the aver- 
age foreigner residing among them [is considered]. I have never 
been so struck with the heartlessness of Nations as well as indi- 
viduals as since coming to the east. But a day of retribution is 
sure to come. These people are becoming strong and China is 
sure to do so also. When they do a different policy will have to 
prevail from that enforced now. 

I send to-day addressed to your care a small box containing 
some small presents to Nellie which I wish you would be kind 
enough to pay all charges upon, and forward to her, with the bill 
for the amount you may have to pay. The box is marked : Mrs. 
Nellie Grant Sartoris ; care General A. Badeau ; U. S. Consul- 
General, London, England. Mrs. Grant, Fred, & Young join 
me in kindest regards to you. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Fifty-five. 

The reference to General Grant's intended book was 
of course a banter. He often used to tease or rally his 
intimates, and the more he liked them, the more he some- 
times seemed to be unmerciful. He never teased any one 
half so much as he did Mrs. Grant. There was besides a 
vein of real humor in him which became apparent when he 
felt entirely free and unrestrained. I had mentioned a state- 
ment I had seen that he intended to write a history of his 
campaigns, and this letter contains his comical reply. 

Mrs. Robeson had repeated to me something she had 
heard about Grant's candidacy for office and the opposition 
which was likely to come from certain quarters. 



520 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



Tokio, Japan, 

Aug. 30 th / 79. 

My Dear General, — You will see from the date above that 
we did not get away from here on the 27 th as I wrote you we 
would. The steamer on which we are to sail postponed her depart- 
ure until the 3 d of Sept. otherwise I should not have received 
your letter of the 9 th of July. I do not know how it can be that 
you have not received letters from me. I have written to you 
oftener than to any one else, except my children and possibly 
Ammen. I have received since leaving you at Marseilles three 
or four batches of your book and returned all of them. I hope 
you have received them all back. 

Mrs. Robeson is no friend of mine to tell you of my intended 
book in competition with yours when she knew yours was not yet 
in print and might be changed to suit the altered circumstances. 
On looking at your letter again I see that Mrs. R. did not tell you 
that, but you got your information from an obscure paper published 
in the western part of Kansas. Well, I thought by letting the 
information out so far from London you would not find it out 
before your work was completed and then it would do you no 
good nor me any harm. But as you are posted now I give you 
my written pledge that the work described in the Wichita Eagle 
shall not appear in time to do you any harm. — I do not feel bad 
over the information Mrs. Robeson gave you. I am not a candi- 
date for any office nor would I hold one that required any maneu- 
vering or sacrifice to obtain. 

We are all well. Mrs. Grant, Fred, & Young join me in 
kindest regards to you. Yours Truly, 

Gen. A. Badeau, U. S. Grant. 

U. S. Consul-General. 

Letter No. Fifty-six. 
In 1864, at the time of the Presidential election when 
McClellan was a candidate against Lincoln, disturbances were 
apprehended in New York by the Government, and General 
Butler was sent to that city to assist in maintaining the pub- 
lic peace. No disorder occurred, but General Rawlins told 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. r 2 i 

me shortly afterward that Butler had intended, in case of a 
riot, to send out to Orange where McClellan was living, and 
have him tried by a drum-head court-martial for inciting trea- 
son, and if found guilty, he meant to hang him at once. I 
have, as General Grant said, no authority for this statement 
but Rawlins's declaration that Butler had so assured him. 
Acting upon Grant's advice I did not give it a place in my 
history. 

I was expecting to return to America in the spring of 
1880, to bring out the concluding volumes of my history, and 
had written to ask General Grant's plans, so that I might 
meet him on my arrival and submit to him such portions of 
the work as he had not seen. I was very anxious to bring 
out the book before the nominations for President could be 
made, in the hope that it might help to revive the enthusiasm 
for Grant ; but with all my efforts, it was not finished until 
nearly a year after the meeting of the Convention at Chicago. 

Galena, III., 

Nov. 21 st , 1879. 
My Dear General, — I have just read the enclosed and see 
nothing to suggest in the way of change, except there are three or 
four typographical errors which you will correct. I have no one 
with me now and have consequently mail enough to keep about 
six hours a day reading and answering such as must be answered. 
You must be satisfied therefore with a very unsatisfactory letter. 
There is one omission I would suggest in the notes to the first 
chapter here returned. I doubt the policy of giving Butler's inten- 
tion to hang McClellan in a certain contingency. He might deny 
it and your authority for the statement — Rawlins — is dead. The 
papers have probably kept you posted as to the manner of recep- 
tions I have had since my arrival in San Francisco. They have 
been very flattering. I go East so as to reach Phil a on the 
16 th of Dec. I will remain there until I go to take up winter 
quarters. My present intention is to go to Havana and the 
City of Mexico and return to Galena about the last of April next 



c 2 2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

year. In this case I will not meet you on your arrival. But you 
can get your book out just as well without me. I think you can- 
not get it out too soon after your return to America. It will be 
the most authentic book published on the war, and I think the 
most truthful history — except what you say about me — published 
this many a day. 

Mrs. Grant joins me in kindest regards and well wishes for you. 

Very Truly Yours, 

Gen. A. Badeau. U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Fifty-seven. 

Grant's reference to Stanton in this letter, is characteristic. 
It has been thought and said that a hostility existed between 
these two great men, and because Grant did not offer Stanton 
a place in his Cabinet, I have heard it asserted that the Sec- 
retary went broken-hearted and disappointed to his grave. 
Yet Stanton had supported Grant in the canvass of 1868, 
and though I doubt not there had been a time when he 
hoped that his own great services to the country would secure 
him the very highest political reward, he soon saw that the 
tide had set irresistibly toward Grant. It was he who 
announced to Grant his first nomination at Cincinnati, and he 
manifested no half-heartedness afterward. 

Neither did Grant ever entertain any serious ill-feeling 
toward Stanton. The little differences that had arisen 
between thorn in their official relations never affected their 
action, and Grant retained his respect for Stanton to the last. 
He did not, indeed, invite him to a position in his Cabinet, for 
he felt that it would be difficult for Stanton to serve under 
one who had so long been his subordinate, and the delicacy of 
the situation was not inviting. It is also true that he knew 
Stanton's imperious temper, and was not anxious to bring 
himself into contact with it; for Grant certainly would not 
have submitted as President, to what he had thought proper to 
endure as a nominal inferior. More than all, he wanted to 
enter upon his new functions with men who had not been 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 523 

complicated by their past relations, especially in the very 
positions which cabinet ministers would hold. Had both 
Seward and Stanton been more personally intimate with 
Grant, or had their fitness for their posts been still more 
marked, I doubt whether he would have sought an association 
with either of them when he became President. But this 
implied no failure to appreciate their ability or services. 

It is possible that in his new position, Grant forgot, for a 
while, his old superior ; and he may have seemed in the press 
of public cares, and amid the importance of the highest pub- 
lic duties, even to neglect the faithful patriot who had done 
and suffered so much for the cause with which Grant had 
triumphed ; but when it was told him that Stanton was ill 
and depressed in body and mind, I know that he was both 
shocked and grieved. I was in Washington at the time, and 
on duty at the Executive Mansion. A seat on the Supreme 
Court bench was vacant, and Grant was aware that this had 
long been an object of Stanton's legitimate ambition. ^ He 
went at once, President though he was, to Stanton's house, 
and offered the sick man the position, and the broken 
statesman was greatly touched and gratified by the recogni- 
tion of his services from him who was now the representative 
of the Republic. The interview took place in the same 
room where Grant had once told the Secretary that he was to 
supersede him. 

But the great War Minister was worn out in the sendee 
of his country. His efforts and labors had told on him as 
much as if they had occurred in the field ; the offer was 
grateful to him, but it came too late, or only in time to soothe 
his dying hours. He never sat on the bench to which he had 
been elevated, and within a week Grant went to the same 
house to Stanton's funeral. 

When one remembers the great men whom that great era 
developed, the positions they occupied, the achievements they 
performed, the ambitions they cherished, and how almost 



524 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



invariably their careers came to a disastrous close, the little- 
ness of worldly success is terribly and sadly taught. Seward, 
Chase, Sumner, Stanton, and Greeley all aspired to the Presi- 
dency, and each died without reaching the goal, each under the 
shadow of defeat and disappointment ; while others on the 
national side, like Johnson, Hancock, and McClellan, failed 
of an election. Then there is the long list of soldiers, men 
of ability and patriotism, who were superseded : including 
Halleck, McClellan, Burnside, Hooker, Rosecrans, Buell, Pope, 
and Warren; as well as Banks, and Butler, and McDowell, 
and even Scott ; while Meade and Thomas doubtless felt that 
they had deserved what others gained. Every one of these 
men was surpassed by Grant, to say nothing of the soldiers 
whom he vanquished in the field ; yet Grant himself, who 
seemed so long the favorite of fate, was deserted at the last, 
and hurled into an abyss of misfortune into which every one 
of the others might have looked and pitied him. 

The canal mentioned in this letter was the Nicaragua 
Canal, in the construction of which Grant took the greatest 
interest, both while he was President and afterward. 

Philadelphia, Pa., 

Dec. 2 7 th , / 79. 
My Dear Badeau, — I have now been in Phil* nearly two 
weeks and have been kept so busy all the time that 1 have 
not been able to glance over the morning papers even except two 
or three times. The trip from Chicago here has been a very 
fatiguing one though very gratifying. No doubt you have seen 
fuller accounts of it than I would give if I was going to describe 
it. The reception at Louisville however astonished me. Not- 
withstanding a heavy rain storm when I reached there, and ankle 
deep mud in the streets, the way was packed with people through- 
out the whole line marked out for the procession. The windows 
were crowded with ladies & children waving their handkerchiefs, 
and the houses all decorated with stars & stripes. The people 
seemed very cordial & enthusiastic. The reception here has 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



525 



been simply overwhelming. — To-day I start for Cuba & Mexico. 
Sheridan & wife, Fred & his wife & Kittie Felt, Mrs. Grant & 
I make up the party. We will stop over in Washington until 
the 30 ! We go to Flo. by rail and cross over to Havana 
from there. In the two last chapters of your book I have seen 
nothing to criticise. Your chapter on Stanton is the best pen 
picture of a historical character I ever read. I venture to predict 
that it will be so considered by critics when it comes before the 
public. The fact is I think the whole book will rank among the 
most truthful, and best written, histories ever presented to the pub- 
lic. It will be criticised of course by friends of some Generals 
who do not rank in your estimation as they do in their own, and 
by personal enemies. But you will find on the whole favorable 
criticisms. 

I expect to be back in Galena as soon as the weather gets 
pleasant in the spring, and to remain there until time to go to 
Long Branch. I will then have the summer to arrange for a per- 
manent home and occupation. It may be the Canal in which 
case I will live in New York City. It must be occupation or a 
country home. My means will not admit of a city home without 
employment to supplement them. All my family join in kindest 
regards to you. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Fifty-eight. 

I returned to the United States, on leave, in April, 1880, 
but Grant was in Galena. I went out to see him in May, 
just before the Chicago Convention that nominated Garfield 
for the Presidency. After the result was known I wrote to 
him, of course, as warmly as I knew how, and yet without 
saying too much of his defeat — the first in his career. The 
manly but touching letter which follows was his acknowl- 
edgment. 

The sentence mentioning Porter and Seligman refers to 
some business propositions that were made to him after the 
failure of his political friends at Chicago, for they knew now 
that he must turn his attention to his own affairs ; as he was 
far from rich, or even independent. 



526 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



June 23 rd , 1SS0. 

My Dear Badeau, — Your letter of the 19 th is just received, 
I wilL be very glad to see you before your return to England. I 
will not be going east, however, before the latter part of Novem- 
ber. In one week I will be starting west and may remain absent 
six weeks. I may get tired in three weeks and return here. In 
any event I expect to get back before the end of August. 

Since writing the above I have read the admirable chapter 
which accompanied your letter. There is no criticism to make 
upon it. If you want it returned write or telegraph me. Suppos- 
ing you have a copy I do not return it with this. — I am glad you 
are getting on so well with your book. Hope to see it out before 
you return to England. It will not probably have so great a sale, 
at once, as would have had the result at Chicago been what 
many thought it would be. But it will have a long run, finding a 
market long after you and I are gone. Tell Borter that I received 
his letter, and Seligman's. I answered Seligman both by telegraph 
& letter, declining his offer. Seligman will no doubt allow him 
to see my letter. 

We are all well here and Mrs. Grant and Jesse, who is here 
for a day or two, join me in kindest regards. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Fifty-nine. 

This note was accompanied by a portion of what I had 
written on Thomas's Nashville campaign for my history. 

Dear Badeau, — I neglected to enclose this in my last letter. 
I gave your summing up of Thomas' characteristics to the press 
thinking it appropriate as the Society of the Army of the Cumber- 
land were about meeting in Washington to unveil the Equestrian 
Statue to his memory. All well. 

Yours Truly. 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. Sixty. 

For months after his defeat at Chicago, Grant was turn- 
ing over in his mind the business he should adopt ; considering 
many offers and examining various enterprises, as the next 
letter shows very fully. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



527 



Manitou Springs, Col., 

July 28 th , 1880. 

Dear Badeau, — Your letter of the 18 th of July, with chapter 
enclosed, only reached me on the 26 th , at Leadville. I have read 
the chapter over carefully and see nothing to criticise. In your 
letter you say that you sent me the first part of " Fort Fisher " 
some weeks ago, before the receipt of my letter. The last I have 
received from you, before your letter of the 18 th , was the chapter 
which I approved in my letter from Galena. I think now, I will 
be in New York City soon after my return to Galena. The 
probabilities are that I shall make my home there. But this is 
not entirely certain. I am obliged to do something to supplement 
my means to live upon and I have very favorable offers there. 
Fortunately none of my children are a tax upon me. If they were 
we would all have to retire to the farm and work that. 

I have been looking at the mines in New Mexico and in this 
state and flatter myself that I have obtained something of an 
insight into the resources of the two — the state and territory — 
and a large insight in the way mines are managed. Without going 
into details I would not buy stock in any mine in the country, 
when the stock is thrown upon the market, any more than I would 
buy lottery tickets. The mines are producing largely, but those 
quoted pay no dividends to the stockholders unless it is to put up 
the price of the stocks so the knowing ones can sell out. Porter & 
Co. have a magnificent mine, managed by a thoroughly competent 
and honest man. It is so opened that they will get out all there 
is in it in the most economical manner, and the dividends will be 
regular, subject to no vicissitudes except strikes, epidemics or 
earthquakes. I go on Saturday to the Garrison and probably 
from there to the San Juan region. That visit over I will have 
seen a large part of the Mining region. 

My family are all well. Buck is with me and Fred, is on his 
way between Santa Fe and here. The climate of this place is 
perfect. While you are sweltering in New York cloth clothing is 
comfortable here. All desire to be remembered to you. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 



S 2i 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



Letter No. Sixty-one. 
At the close of this letter, Grant alludes to the joke of one 
of the rebel soldiers in Sherman's Atlanta campaign. It was 
proposed to blow up a tunnel on the road over which 
Sherman brought his supplies. " Oh h — 11," exclaimed the 
Confederate, " Don't you know that Sherman carries dupli- 
cate tunnels with him on this march?" 

Manitou Sprixgs, Col., 

Aug. i2 ,h , 1880. 

My Dear General, — I returned here day before yesterday 
and found a mail awaiting me which has required all my spare 
time until now just to read. In it I find your two letters, and the 
first part of the chapter on Fort Fisher. I have read it carefully 
and do not see how a word can be changed. All that you say 
that exception can be taken to is supported by quotations, or 
citations to, orders and letters of instruction of the time. I have 
been away from here for ten days visiting parts of Colorado I had 
never seen before. The trip was a very hard one though full of 
interest. I am satisfied this state has a great destiny before it. 
The new regions that I visited will show greater mineral resources 
than all that has been heretofore discovered in the state besides 
considerable agricultural resources. But I will see you in 
September, when I shall be in New York, and then I can tell you 
more than I can write. "When I go to New York it will be deter- 
mined whether I accept the Presidency of the Mining Co. to 
which I have been elected. One thing is certain, I must do 
something to supplement my income or continue to live in Galena 
or on a farm. I have not got the means to live in a city. 

With kindest regards of Mrs. Grant, Fred. & Buck — the 
latter has just left — I am as ever, Yours Truly, 

U. S. Gram. 

P. S. I do not return the chapter on F. F. supposing you 
have a duplicate as Sherman's men had of all the R. R. tunnels 
the rebels destroyed. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 529 

Letter No. Sixty-two. 

Chapter XXXI of my " Military History " which Grant so 
highly approved, is the one which shows more plainly than ■ 
any other how absolutely he directed the movements of all 
the armies, and gives him the credit to which he was entitled 
for the comprehensive strategy which did so much to bring 
about the success of the Union armies ; without which indeed 
all the effort of those armies would have failed. 

I need not call attention to General Grant's remarks about 
Thomas and Canby; they show at least that I have not 
misapprehended nor misrepresented his own opinions of those 
soldiers, and justify the plainness with which I speak of other 
eminent individuals in the present volume. 

The visit to Boston to which he invited me, had a semi- 
political character, and was turned to good account in favor 
of Garfield by the Republicans. During the journey, which 
extended to other places than Boston, Grant was present at a 
number of political meetings, at all of which he made short 
addresses, so that the popular enthusiasm for him was con- 
verted into capital for the candidate who had defeated him at 
Chicago. 

Galena, III., 

Sept. 2o ,h /3o. 

My Dear Badeau, — I have just read your last chapter 
furnished me. It is admirable. You have not written one better, 
nor one more interesting. I am glad you have put so distinctly 
before your readers the vexatious delays of Thomas and Canby. 
They were both excellent men ; but possessed fatal defects to 
being successful directors or executors of great military move- 
ments, unless on the defensive. You give true history in regard 
to them, and furnish the proof as you go along. While I would 
not wish to detract from any one I think history should record the 
truth. — I read this chapter out loud to Mrs. Grant. She wants 
me to say that she was much interested. I have been compelled 
to delay my departure to the east one week to enable me to keep 
an engagement to meet my old regiment at a reunion, which I had 
34 



c* GRANT IN PEACE. 

promised last fall to do, but had forgotten the date of the meeting 
when I arranged to start on the last of this month. I shall hope 
to meet you then and would like to have you go on to Boston with 
me for four or five days if it would not interfere with your book too 
much. Tell Porter of my delay. 

With kind regards of Mrs. Grant & myself. 

Yours Truly, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Sixty-three. 

After the visit to Boston, I was almost constantly with 
General Grant for four or five months. I had rooms near 
him in New York, and saw him daily. During the latter part 
of the winter, I was laid up for six weeks with a lameness, 
and he often came and sat with me, discussing public affairs 
or his own, or reading and revising the chapters of my history 
on which I was still engaged. I was still Consul-General at 
London, and my leave of absence having been renewed once 
or twice, he gave me the advice contained in the following 
letter. It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Evarts was 
Secretary of State, and Colonel John Hay, Assistant-Secre- 
tary under President Hayes. 

New York Citv. 

Dec. 4 th /So. 

Dear Badeau, — I would advise that you drop a private note 
to Asst. Sec. Hay saying that you would like to have your leave ex- 
tended to about the 20 th , or last of Jan. to insure getting your 
book in the hands of the printer before leaving. I will be going 
to Washington on Monday the 13 th inst. and will speak to Hay, or 
Evarts, to have your leave extended if you wish. It is a pity the 
book cannot be out by the holidays. Business is then suspended 
and many persons might read it who later will not have the time. 
Sincerely Yours, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Sixty-four. 

This note was written immediately after the inauguration 
of Garfield, in March, 1881. Grant was still in no actual 
business, and his means, as I have said, were limited ; he had 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 531 

no secretary, and the accumulation of his correspondence 
often annoyed him. I therefore offered to assist him as of old. 
He expected to remain in New York, and had agreed to 
recommend me to the new Administration for the "Naval 
Office " in that city, which would place me permanently where 
I could be near him. At this time he had no doubt that 
a mere suggestion from him to the President would be suffi- 
cient ; the obligations of Garfield were so conspicuous. 

Dear General, — Much obliged for your offer of services ; but 
company have been coming in all day, so that all I could do has 
been to answer a few letters. In the morning I go to Washington 
and will take that occasion to talk to Conkling and the President 
about your transfer to New York. Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. Sixty-five. 

General Grant recommended Mr. Russell Young to the 
new Administration, either for the mission to Mexico or 
to China or Japan. 

March 11 th / 81. 

Dear General, — I will call over to see you a while this after- 
noon if I can. Young will not probably go to Mexico because 
there will hardly be a change there. If there should be a change 
in China or Japan he would have one of those places. I will 
tell you this evening about your chances for the Naval office. 
Conkling is willing. Yours, U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Sixty-six. 
In Chapter XXXVII of this volume, I have given the 
history of General Grant's recommendation of myself to 
Garfield. On the 24th of March, 1881, I took the following 
letter to the new President : 

New York, March 16 th , 1881. 
His Excellency, 

Ja's A. Garfield, 

President of U. States: 
Dear Sir,— I take great pleasure in introducing to you 
General Badeau, formerly of my staff, and now Consul-General 



c .,-, GRANT IN PEACE. 

bo- 
at London. You ma)' not be aware that General Badeau has 
been engaged for fifteen years on a history of the Rebellion so far 
as -my connection with it is concerned. That work is now com- 
plete and in the hands of the publishers. When I was in Wash- 
ington last week I meant to speak to you of him, but do not 
remember whether I did. Lest I should not have done so, I will 
now state that it was my intention to have asked his retention in 
his present office unless he could receive the post of Naval Officer 
of this port. I would not ask the latter position unless it met 
with the approval of the Senators from this state and the Repre- 
sentatives from this city and Brooklyn. 

Very truly yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Before this letter was delivered my name was sent to the 
Senate as Charge d' Affaires at Copenhagen. Grant at once 
sent me the following telegram from New York : 

New York, March 24. 
General Badeau, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: 

See the President at once with my letter. Ask him to with- 
draw your nomination, and if he cannot leave you in London, ask 
him to give you either Italy or Naval Office in this city. Show 
him this dispatch as my endorsement of you for either place. 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. Sixty-seven. 
As the President was disinclined to reconsider his appoint- 
ment, Grant sent me this second telegram, which also I 
submitted to Garfield. The result is described in Chapter 

XXXVII. 

New York, 

March 25. 
General A. Badeau, Riggs House, Washington, D. C: 

I advise you to decline Copenhagen and stick to London 
unless you can get Naval Office, Italy, or some equally good 
place. Advise with Conkling and Piatt. It would be better to 
come here without government appointment than to take Copen- 
hagen. U. S. Grant. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 533 

Letter No. Sixty-eight. 
As elsewhere related, Garfield persisted in his nomina- 
tions, which, however, were opposed in the Senate, and I 
returned to my post in England to await the result, while 
General Grant went to Mexico to arrange for the organization 
of a railroad connecting that country with the United States. 
This was the enterprise in which Mr. Romero took so deep 
an interest. 

From Mexico Grant wrote to the Hon. J. P. Jones of the 
United States Senate, a letter condemning Garfield's course. 
This letter was published and excited great attention. In it 
Grant said: "The change of Badeau and Cramer, the two 
appointments in which I felt a strong personal interest, was 
very distasteful to me; the first, because of our personal 
relations, and my wish that he should be kept where his office 
would support him until he finished some work he is engaged 
upon, and which he could do without interfering with his 
public duties." This work was Grant's political history, 
the military one being complete. 

From Mexico General Grant wrote to me also the follow- 
ing letter: 

City of Mexico, 
May 7th, 188 1. 
Dear General, — I received your several letters written since 
my departure from New York, and your telegram. The latter I 
answered at once saying stick to London or its equivalent. The 
operator refused to send the dispatch on the prepayment. I then 
sent my pass — which I have over the Mexican cable & Western 
Union — when they received it. I supposed of course you would 
get the reply. I am completely disgusted with Garfield's course. 
It is too late now for him to do anything to restore him to my 
confidence. I will never again lend my active aid to the support 
of a Presidential candidate who has not strength enough to appear 
before a convention as a candidate, but gets in simply by the 
adherents of prominent candidates preferring any outsider to 
either of the candidates before the Convention save their own.' 



c„ 4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Garfield has shown that he is not possessed of the backbone of 
an angle-worm. I hope his nominations may be defeated and you 
left where you are until you are ready to withdraw voluntarily. I 
see no note of your book coining out yet. It looks as if the 
Appletons were in no hurry. 

My business here progresses favorably so far as the President 
and the departments are concerned. I have heard nothing yet of 
any opposition in Congress. Before this reaches you I will be on 
my way home. 

I never would have undertaken the work I am now engaged in 
for any possible gain that can accrue to myself. But I have been 
much impressed with the resources of this country, and have enter- 
tained a much higher opinion of these people than the world at 
large generally do, and of their capacity to develope their re- 
sources, with aid and encouragement from outside. I felt that 
this development must come soon, and the country furnishing the 
means would receive the greatest benefit from the increased com- 
merce. I wanted it to be ours. Besides we want to encourage 
republican government, and particularly on this continent. Then 
too it is an advantage for us to pay for our imports with the 
products of our soil & manufactures as far as possible. This 
we do not do now with countries from which we receive tropical 
& semi-tropical products. Mexico can furnish all the commodi- 
ties and will want in return what we have to sell. 

I will always be glad to hear from you and will write in return 
occasionally. You know I have a great many letters to write, 
and probably will have to write more in the future. But I have 
learned one thing in this trip that I wish I had learned twenty 
years ago. I brought along a stenographer as Sec. I find no 
trouble whatever in dictating letters, speeches & reports. It 
saves a world of trouble. With best regards of Mrs. ('.rant & 

myself. ^ ours Trul )% 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Sixty-nine. 
It is not fair to Grant that the last letter should be read 
without the one which immediately succeeded it. If his bitter- 
ness towards him whom he considered a disloyal compeer is 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 535 

remembered, the sympathy he felt for the stricken President 
should also be recalled. I reprint the second letter although 
it has already been given with other surroundings. 

New York City, 

July 27 th , 188 1. 

My Dear Gen. Badeau, — I am just this day in receipt 
of two letters from you of the latter part of June. Why they 
have been so long coming I cannot conceive. — A few days after 
your letters were written, as you know — the dastardly attempt was 
made upon the President's life. This of course has put a stop to 
all communication on the subject of foreign appointments, in fact 
all Presidential appointments. I had told Porter before this terri- 
ble crime that I thought probably you had better after all accept 
the Copenhagen appointment for the present. Whether Porter 
had an opportunity to mention the subject before the wounding of 
the President or not I do not know. — This attempt upon the life 
of Gen. Garfield produced a shock upon the public mind but 
little less than that produced by the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. 
The intensity of feeling has somewhat died out in consequence of 
the favorable reports of the patient's condition from day to day ; 
but now more alarm is being felt for his safety. I myself have 
felt until within the last three or four days that there was scarcely 
a doubt about his recovery. Now however I fear the chances 
are largely against it. But by the time this reaches you more 
certainty will be felt one way or the other. The crime is a dis- 
grace to our country, and yet cannot be punished as it deserves. 

I have been very busy though not accomplishing much, which 
must be my excuse for not writing sooner. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy. 

At last my successor to London was confirmed, and on 
his arrival in England, in September, 1881, I returned to this 
country, and resumed my old habit of constant association 
with General Grant. The new President, Arthur, was in 
New York in October, and General Grant called on him. He 



536 GRANT IN PEACE. 

told me the same day that Arthur had introduced the subject 
of providing an appointment for me. Arthur had urged me 
a few months before to decline the nomination to Copenhagen 
which Garfield offered me, and my whole course in that 
matter had been advised and endorsed by him and Senator 
Conkling as strongly as by Grant. He now admitted to 
Grant that he felt bound to offer me a place at least equal to 
that from which I had been removed. He said to General 
Grant that he meant to appoint me Minister to Italy. 

By General Grant's advice, I waited on the President the 
next day. Arthur had been my acquaintance for more than 
twenty years. I knew both him and his wife before their 
marriage, and had always been on pleasant and personal 
terms with him. He was at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and 
received me in a parlor full of visitors ; but he took me by 
the hand and led me at once into his bedroom, which was 
crowded with clothes, so that he sat on the bedstead and I on 
a trunk while we talked. He adverted at once to my position, 
and, without waiting for me to ask or suggest anything, 
declared that he meant to give me the mission to Italy. Mr. 
Marsh, the incumbent, was old and infirm, and had long been 
unable to perform his duties, and Arthur said that I might 
rely upon his promise ; but of course there was a press of 
important matters that had precedence. His Cabinet was not 
re-formed, and he always moved slowly ; and I heard no more 
from him for months. During the winter he was again in 
New York, and again assured General Grant that I should 
receive the Italian Mission, but I did not approach him at 
that time. 

In January, however, I went to Washington, and he 
received me by appointment in the evening. Again he 
promised to nominate me to Italy, but he said there was a 
difficulty about removing Mr. Marsh, who was the friend and 
relative of Senator Edmunds. The President, however, 
informed me that he meant to nominate Mr. Edmunds to a 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 537 

vacant seat on the Supreme Court bench, and then any obli- 
gations to the Senator would be fulfilled, after which my 
appointment would be made. He did offer Edmunds the 
judgeship, but it was declined, and nothing more was said to 
me. 

It was at this time that I received the following letter 
from General Grant. The first sentence refers to my " Military 
History," which was sold by subscription, and Grant wanted 
to make out a list of his personal friends to whom the can- 
vassers might offer the book. 

Dear Badeau, — I think it would be well if the Appletons 
would send one of their canvassers for this city to me. 

I hardly know how to advise you to proceed in your personal 
matter. But I think I would see the President and if he is not 
inclined to remove Marsh I would suggest the Consul-Generalship 
of Paris or London. There may be some hesitation about the 
removal of the latter, but I am told there would not be in regard 
to the former. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-one. 

In accordance with General Grant's advice I wrote a note 
requesting a second interview with the President, and received 
no answer. I reported this to the General, who thereupon 
wrote me this letter. 

The Mr. Hamilton spoken of was the late John C. Ham- 
ilton of New York, father-in-law of General Halleck. It was 
this relationship which made his commendation notable ; for 
I had been obliged to say many things in my history, which 

were unfavorable to Halleck. 

New York City, 

Feb'y 3 d , 1882. 
Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of the i st . It is possible 
the President's Sec. — knowing how the President is op- 
pressed by calls — never laid your letter before him. At all events 
I would assume that he had not, and would lay my business before 



538 



GRANT IX FLACK. 



him. The President has spoken in the kindest terms of you, and 
suggested himself, before I mentioned, it, the Italian Mission. I 
would suggest that you go in to see him in his office hours and say 
that you would not take up his time now, but if he would name a 
time you would like to call when he could give you a few minutes. 
Of course you are at liberty to use any letter or saying of mine. 

Old Mr. Hamilton was in to see me a few days ago. He had 
just finished reading your book and was in extasies over it. He 
had not one word of unfavorable comment. 

The Appletons have not yet sent an Agent to me. — I hope you 
may be speedily relieved from your suspense by Presidential 
action. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-two. 

The volume General Grant here refers to is his political 
history, which, as the military work was complete, I was now 
about to begin. 

There were some conversations between Mr. George 
Jones and several of my friends, at this time, in regard to my 
joining the staff of the New York Times, which will explain 
the concluding sentences of this letter. 

New York City, 

Feb'y 16*, 1882. 

Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday, and received 
in time yours of a few days ago. I think there is no doubt but 
the President is disposed to do something for you. But, to this 
time, he has seemed averse to making any removals no matter how 
offensive the parties in place have been to him and his friends. I 
hope this will not continue. Exactly what to suggest I am at loss 
to think of. Something in "U'ashington would suit your purpose of 
writing the volume you speak of better than elsewhere. But what 
is there of sufficient dignity and compensation that would give 
you the time. I have no doubt but they would be glad to give 
you tin' place vacated — or to be vacated by young Blaine. If 
that would do suggest it to the Sec. or Asst. Sec. and no doubt it 



LETTERS OF GEX. GRANT TO GEX. BADEAU. 



539 



could be brought about. Refer to me in this or any othe 
for your benefit. 

George Jones and his wife dine with me on Saturday next. I 
will see what he might be willing to do in the direction you sug- 
gest. With a fair compensation from that quarter, your retired 
pay and what you might pick up in other ways, might be be: 
pecuniarily than an official position in Washington. 

Very Tru'y Yours. 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-three. 
General Grant had suggested one of the railroad inspector- 
ships in the gift of the President as an appointment that 
might be acceptable to me. He knew that I intended to 
devote as much of my time and labor as I could command to 
his Political Memoirs, and he felt that he should in : 
do all in his power to advance my interests. 

New York City. Feb'y it . i 

Dear Bad eau, — Yours of yesterday received. I wrote the 
President this morning suggesting Austria and said that your 
qualifications for the office were equal to those of any representa- 
tive we have had at that court in twenty- years. I also said that 
you spoke the German. French .Sc Spanish languages, and that 
I believed you did the Italian also. Am I right ? I marked the 
letter " Personal " on the envelope, and signed my name, so that it 
might go direct to the President. I think I would call upon him 
again if I were in your place even if I did not mention the 
Austrian Mission. He would be apt to speak of my letter. You 
might speak of the railroad inspectorship. 

Yery Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-four. 

The boxes referred to were left by me at the White House 

when I went abroad. They contained a few private papers of 

mv own, but were principally filled with the material and 

proofs for the first volume of my Military History of Grant. 



C40 GRANT IN PEACE. 

In the various removals that took place after General Grant's 
Presidency, they had remained unopened, but at last they 
were examined by some one unused to the care of papers and 
manuscripts, and were thrown into inextricable confusion. 
While I was living at General Grant's house in 1884, I was 
shown a huge mass of papers, and told by the servants that 
mine were among them ; but none of the family knew any- 
thing of the matter, and I could find nothing of importance 
that belonged to me. 

The names omitted in the last part of the following letter 
are those of four important Republicans with whom Grant 
was on bad terms. 

New York City, 

Feb'y 21 st , 1882. 
My Dear General, — The boxes you refer to are at my house. 
They were pried open and discovering that they contained 
only papers were put in the store room where they now are. — I 
shall take no notice of Shipherd for the present. He stated 
truthfully, in a published interview that I had no interest in the 
Peruvian Co. and never had. I do not recognize the right 
of reporters and sensational writers to call upon me for an explana- 
tion whenever my name is mentioned. If I should say anything 
to a reporter it would be that the greatest objection I had to the 
statements of Mr. Shipherd was that he associated my name with 

those of , , & . But this was partially 

relieved by the many good names on his list. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-five. 
I have no copy of the Utter to the President here referred 
to which I submitted to General Grant. It was not forwarded 
to the President. 

March 7"', [882. 
Dear Badeau, — Your proposed letter to the President is in 
good enough tune ; but I think 1 would not send it, but instead 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 54! 

would call and say in substance the same thing. If I did send 
the letter I would omit what is here marked out. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-six. 

New York City, 

March n ,h , 1882. 
Dear Badeau, — The story about my failure was all a pure 
fiction, invented with many other lies on the stock board to 
depress stocks. 

I have nothing to do with their speculations and I think it 
great presumption to use my name in any way to effect their 
purposes. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Seventy-seven. 
During the winter I called on the President once or twice 
again, but with little result. He once said that the Secretary 
of State had proposed the mission to Lisbon for me, but that 
he himself had declared he could not ask me to accept the 
post, as he had urged me to decline Copenhagen, which was 
of equal importance. Mr. Edmunds still supported his 
relative, and I at no time suggested that Mr. Marsh should 
be requested to resign ; nor did General Grant, on my account. 
Finally, the Secretary of State sent for me, and inquired if 
money was an object to me. I replied that the pay of an 
office was certainly a consideration, for I was not a rich man, 
but that money was not my principal object. Here the 
Secretary interrupted and said : " I understand. You were 
removed because of political considerations, and you think 
you should be vindicated, now that your friends are in power." 
I said that was my position. He then inquired if I would be 
willing to take a Consulate-General temporarily, with the 
express understanding that my acceptance should not affect 
my claims to a diplomatic place ; and stated that Havana, 
Japan, and Rio Janeiro were at his disposal, and I might take 



e 42 GRANT IN PEACE. 

my choice of them. I replied that Havana was the only one 
I could possibly accept, as that was the only one in which I 
would not be subordinate to a Minister, the Consul-General 
at Havana exercising in reality diplomatic functions, and re- 
porting direct to the State Department, and in no way to the 
Minister to Spain. I asked for time to consider the proposi- 
tion, and referred it to Grant, who replied by telegram as fol- 
lows : 

New York, April 5, 1882 

General Badeau, 1407 H Street, Washington: 

I would accept with conditions named. 

U. S. Grant. 

I followed General Grant's advice, but not until I had 
gone to New York to consult him in person. Then I wrote 
to the Secretary of State that, relying upon his pledge, I 
accepted the post of Consul-General at Havana. Mr. Freling- 
huysen replied, also in writing, promising me that Havana 
should not be a finality, and declaring that he would look 
after my interests in the matter as carefully as a lawyer 
would for those of a client. My name was accordingly sent 
to the Senate, and I was confirmed. But it was arranged 
that I should not go to my post until after the yellow fever 
season was past, and I remained at the North during the 
summer. 

In July, Mr. Marsh, the Minister to Italy, died very 
suddenly, and General Grant at once wrote to the President, 
reminding him of his promise to send me to Italy. Mr. Conk- 
ling also wrote to Arthur in my favor; and I addressed both 
the President and the Secretary of State, recalling their 
pledges. Mr. W. W. Astor, however, was immediately ap- 
pointed and confirmed as Minister to Italy. Both he and his 
father had been aware of my expectations, and Mr. John J. 
Astor had congratulated me upon the prospect. They both 
wrote at once, and assured me that the appointment was 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 543 

entirely unexpected and unsolicited by either of them. Mr. 
John Astor told me that when he read the announcement of 
the death of Mr. Marsh, he exclaimed : " Now General Badeau 
will get his mission." 

Mr. Arthur wrote the following letter to General Grant : 

Thursday. Executive Mansion, 

August 3. Washington. 

My Dear General Grant, — I would have been glad to be 
able to gratify you by the appointment of General Badeau to the 
Italian Mission, but there were so many embarassments in the 
way (of which I will tell you when I have the opportunity) that I 
could not well do so. I had thought that the General was satisfied 
with his present place, the emoluments of which certainly amount 
to much more than the salary of the Minister to Italy. 

I suppose however that he would rather be in Europe. 

It looks now like adjournment on Saturday night which I 
earnestly hope for. 

With sincere regards for Mrs. Grant & yourself, I am 

Faithfully Yours, 

Chester A. Arthur. 

General Grant, 

New York. 

No other explanation was ever offered to General Grant 
or to me, of the conduct of Mr. Arthur and Mr. Freling- 
huysen. 

By the advice of General Grant, I did not resign the 
appointment to Havana. 

Letter No. Seventy-eight. 

General Grant sent copies of my history to all of the 
sovereigns or ministers who had entertained him during his 
journey around the world. These volumes were bound 
expressly, and were sent when possible through the State 
Department, or the Legations at the various countries that 
General Grant had visited. It is to these that he refers in 



c 44 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the following letter. Lytton was the Earl Lytton, Viceroy of 
India. 

New York, June 26" / 82. 
Dear Badeau, — I am sorry I have been out every time you 
called recently. I want to see you before you go.— The very day 
after I saw you last letters began to come in acknowledging the 
receipt of the book. Nearly all have now been acknowledged — 
I will be in town again on Thursday. If you can come in then 
go down and spend the night with me at the Branch. If you 
can not come then go down to the Branch on Saturday and stay 
over Sunday. If you can go on Thursday stay the balance of the 
week. We have no company invited for this week, consequently 
plenty of room. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

P. S. The mail laying before me when you were in had the 
acknowledgment from Lytton, the first received. Next I believe 
was from the King of Siam. 

U. S. G. 

Letter No. Seventy-nine. 
This note accompanied the article of General Pleasanton, 
to which it refers : 

In cleaning up my desk to go to the city I find Pleasanton's 
criticisms on your book. You will find that after all it was 
Thomas and Rosecrans — principally Pleasanton — who captured 

Richmond. 

U. S. G. 

Letter No. Eighty. 

General Grant had met Colonel Chesncy, the eminent 
British soldier and military critic, in India, and the letter and 
lecture which he forwarded contained some highly favorable 
comments on my history as well as on Grant's career. 

Lieutenant Green of the Engineer Corps, was engaged at 
this time in the preparation of a short history of the Vicks- 
burg campaign, and during the summer he had read a part 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 545 

of it to General Grant in my presence, to invite remark. It 
is to this work that General Grant refers in the following 
letter : 

N. Y., Sept. 21 st / 1882. 

Dear Badeau, — We moved to the city yesterday. I find in 
my desk your letters inclosing one from Colonel Chesney — here- 
with returned — and his lecture. I will read the latter when I go 
home this evening. 

Green was at my house, at the Branch, Monday evening and 
read the second part of his book. He will be up early next week 
to finish it. He has found a probable error of 4,000 in his state- 
ment of numbers at Vicksburg. The tri-monthly returns for the 
end of Ap'l, and the monthly return for same date disagree by 
that number. He finds that Scott takes the monthly return as the 
correct one when the two disagree. This reduces the number. 
His second part was quite as interesting as the first. I will be 
much mistaken if his book is not regarded as far the best of the 
series. Green felt much complimented when I told him what you 
thought of his work. Yours Very Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

P. S. We will be pleased to see you at the house when you 
come to town. 

U. S. G. 

Letter No. Eighty-one. 

When this letter was written I had arrived at my post in 
Havana. 

Mr. Thomas Hughes, the well-known English author and 
political economist, had a son in Texas, and I had asked Gen- 
eral Grant for letters to some of the important people in that 
region for the young man, who was an especial favorite and 
friend of mine. 

The appointment mentioned by General Grant was the 
Vice-Presidency of the international telegraph line between 
the United States and Cuba. The position was held by an 
Englishman, and the control of all telegraphic messages 
between the Consul-General of the United States and his 
35 



546 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



own Government was thus in the hands of a foreigner. It 
was proposed that this should be transferred to the Consul- 
General, ex officio. Mr. Jay Gould was the principal owner of 
the stock of the company, and General Grant's business 
relations with Gould at that time warranted him in making 
the request. He did apply to Gould, who referred him to Dr. 
Norvin Green, the President of the Western Union, as well 
as of the Cuban Telegraph Company. General Grant made 
the application to Dr. Green, who paid no attention to his 
request, and the place with its powers and appurtenances 
remained in the hands of an Englishman. 

New York City, 

Dec. ii \ 1SS2. 

My Dear General Badeau, — I have your letter of the 1" 
instant, enclosing one from Hughes and also your previous letter. 
I did not write to you before because I expected to see your Vice- 
Consul, Williams, but he has not called on me yet. Of course I 
will help you if I can to obtain the appointment you ask. In 
regard to the matter Hughes speaks of, I wrote the letter he re- 
quested long ago, just after you spoke to me about possibly the 
second time, and in time I should think for them to have received 
it, and informed their father before the date of his letter to you. 
If however they have not received my letter — it was a general 
letter to railroad officials connected with international roads 
between this country and Mexico — I will be glad to write them 
another. 

I have no special news to write you from here. Congress has 
met and the overwhelming defeat of the republicans seems to have 
put both parties on their guard. It looks now as if the interests 
of the country were to be more considered — by many I fear as 
the best means of serving a party — than party interests. But 
there is abundant time for either party to do foolish things and 
both parties have men capable of them. 

I hope you will find your new station an agreeable one. I 
believe you will, for a time, and wish for you a more pleasant one 
in the near future. But I can hardly say I expect much from this 
Administration. It is too slow. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



547 



Buck sails for Europe day after to-morrow. Jesse & wife think 
of going to Mexico this winter. If they do they may drop in upon 
you. 

Hurry up your book on English life. It will be interesting I 
think to many readers. 

With kind regards from all my family, 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-two. 
This letter is already given, with full explanations, in 
Chapter XL, on " Grant and Mexico." 

New York City, 

Feb'y 4 th , 1883. 
Dear Badeau, — I have had three or four letters from you 
since my last. The last one was through the State Department. 
I had heard before that the English had sent their Vice Consul to 
Cuba to Mexico, ostensibly to renew intercourse with that gov- 
ernment, but more particularly to co-operate with the Germans 
and French to defeat a Commercial Treaty with the United' States. 
I sent your letter, with one from myself, to the Sec. of State. — 
You should by all means write to the Sec. of State saying to him 
substantially what you say to me in your letter of the 3 d of January. 
Of course I cannot send that letter. 

We were successful in negotiating a Commercial Treaty, which 
is practically ratified so far as the Mexican Govt, is concerned. 
We will see what our Senate will do with it, if the President sends 
it in. It was delivered to the Sec. of State two weeks ago, with 
report ; but so far it has not seen the light. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-three. 

The first part of this letter is already printed in Chapter 
XL of this volume, on " Grant and Mexico," and requires no 
further explanation. 

I do not remember that I ever requested General Grant to 



r^3 GRAXT IN PEACE. 

recommend my appointment as Minister to Spain, but when 
that post became vacant the State Department requested him 
to mention the names of several suitable persons for the place, 
and he made a list of two or more ; my name was first, and Mr. 
Foster's second ; and Foster was appointed. General Grant 
thought this selection was made because my name was so 
identified with his own, and because Arthur was unwilling to 
seem too much under his influence. Grant frequently said 
to me that at this time his friendship was a detriment to me, 
as it provoked many enmities which I might otherwise have 
escaped ; and in the eyes of Mr. Arthur, it was, he thought, 
especially a disadvantage ; for Arthur was then most anxious 
to propitiate Grant's enemies. 

New York Citv, 

Feby 28 th , 1883. 

My Dear General Badeau, — I was much pleased to receive 
your letter of the 2 2 d inst. I was tempted to give what you say 
about the use of Mexican tobacco ; its use in Cuba ; the feeling of 
the Cubans in regard to the effect of the treaty &c. to the press. 
Of course I should only have given it as from a friend of mine 
writing from Havana. But on reflection 1 concluded that the pub- 
lic would know who my friend in Cuba was, so I concluded not to. 
I wish however you would write the same thing to the State 
Dept. You will learn by the mail that carries this that considera- 
tion of the treaty has been deferred until December next. This I 
fear will defeat the treaty in Mexico where there will be untiring 
efforts, by foreign merchants and diplomats to prejudice the Gov- 
ernment against it. 

You will see — or have seen — that J. W. Foster has been 
appointed to Spain. Foster did not want the place but has 
accepted it temporarily, as I understand, to transact a special and 
important mission which will probably occupy but a few months. 
In some way that 1 am not quite well enough informed to write 
about, a question has arisen in regard to what constitutes a natural- 
ization of a Spanish subject, to make him a citizen of the United 
States. The present Sec. is not willing that Spain should inter- 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



549 



pret our laws on the subject. — Confidentially I do not doubt but 
that Arthur would be very glad to have you succeed Foster. 
But he seems more afraid of his enemies, and through this fear, 
more influenced by them, than guided either by his judgment, 
personal feelings or friendly influences. I hope he will prove me 
wrong in this judgment. 

I saw Gould a few weeks ago about your apt. as superin- 
tendent of American telegraph interests in Cuba, and he seemed 
interested. He asked me to write the President of the Co. on 
the subject and he would speak to him personally. I did so. 

Mrs. Grant tells me to say that she is just reading your history 
and thinks more of you than ever. She is now in the second 
volume. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-four. 
The Rev. Alonzo Flack, the head-master of a considerable 
boarding-school in New York, had written to Gen. Grant pro- 
posing that the Appletons, my publishers, should get up a 
school edition of the "Military History of Grant." The 
General forwarded the letter to me with the following 
endorsement. 

I have answered Mr. Flack approving his idea and told him 
that you had suggested the same thing yourself. I also told him 
that I would forward this letter to you. 

U. S. G. 

March 31 st , 1883. 

Letter No. Eighty-five. 
This letter was written to aid me in a report I was making 
to the Government on the defenses of Havana. 

New York Citv, Apl. 30 th , 1883. 
Dear Badeau, — I beg your pardon for not answering your 
letter requesting my views about the capabilities of the defenses 
of the harbor of Havana to resist any navy. I supposed I had 
answered it, but your last letter reminds me that I have not. On 
my visit to Havana three years ago I had the opportunity of see- 



rr GRANT IN PEACE. 

ing the forts and armament. Both are formidable, and with 
additions that could easily be made before any country could 
attack them, impregnable from direct attack. But I should not 
regard Havana as a difficult place to capture with a combined 
Army and Navy. It would have to be done however by effect- 
ing a landing elsewhere and cutting off land communications with 
army while the Navy would perform the same service in the water. 
The hostility of the native population to the Spanish Authority 
would make this a comparatively easy task for any first class 
power, and especially easy for the United States in case of a war 
with Spain. I have no special news to write you. Buck & 
Jesse have returned from abroad all well. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-six. 
This refers to the suit brought by me in the Court of 
Claims to defend my right to a position in the army. The 
War Department uniformly held that this right was undoubted, 
but one of the auditors of the Treasury took a different view, 
and the matter was referred to the Court of Claims, as I have 
already explained. General Sickles, as well as myself, had 
been retired by President Grant in order to enable him to 
accept diplomatic rank, and he had written to General Grant 
to obtain some information in regard to the General's action 
as President. The letter was not answered promptly, and 
General Sickles inquired of me if it had been received. 

New York Citv, June 21 st , 1SS3. 
Dear General, — I am just in receipt of your letter of the 
1 6th inst. I have been absent from the city most of the time for 
six or seven weeks, returning for a couple of days twice during the 
time. General Sickles wrote me a letter on the subject referred to 
in yours during these absences. Mails accumulated so that I 
did not get to his letter until some time after it was written. I 
then found a second letter from him, on a different subject, and 
answered both in one letter. I have not heard from him since, 
but hope my letter was satisfactory. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



551 



When you come North, and visit Long Branch, come directly 
to my house. Whether I have company or not there will always be 
a room for you. Of course I mean this as an invitation to you to 
come to Long Branch notwithstanding the ambiguity of the pre- 
ceding sentence. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-seven. 
This was written w r hen I was in the United States 
on a leave of absence from my post in Havana. In the con- 
cluding sentence General Grant refers to the fact that I had 
been ill from the effects of the climate. 

Long Branch, N J., 

Aug. 27 th , / 83. 
Dear Badeau, — I am just now in receipt of your letter of the 
24 th inst. It is the first I had heard of your arrival though I sup- 
posed you were some place in the Catskills. Jesse and family 
expect to go to the Kaaterskill house to-morrow, his family to 
remain until he and I return from our trip over the North Pacific 
railroad. We start on that trip on Thursday next. It is probable 
that we will go no further than where the two ends are to be 
united — the last spike driven. In that case we will be back 
from the 12 th to 14 th of Sept. I am sorry that I cannot see 
you before starting ; but I presume I will be back before you will 
want to go to Washington. I would suggest that you write to the 
Sec. of State a note saying that from your condition owing to your 
long delay in Havana that you will not go to Washington until 
after the first frost. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Eighty-eight. 

The first part of this letter is given in Chapter XXXIX 
on " Grant and Blaine." 

The paper spoken of recommended an absolute protection 
by the Government of American citizens and American in- 
terests in the Island of Cuba. General Grant was strongly 



552 GRANT IN PEACE. 

in favor of my views, but the Administration took a course 
diametrically opposite to that which I proposed. The result 
was the Spanish Treaty, which was so universally condemned 
by the country, and so ignominiously defeated in Congress in 
1884. 

The postscript refers to an article on General Sheridan 
which I was writing for The Century Magazine, and which I 
had read to General Grant. Indeed Grant furnished some 
entirely new and very interesting material for the article. 

New York, October 2 5 ,h / S3. 

Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of yesterday. I -write 
because of your allusion to hearing a rumor that Blaine and I had 
formed a combination politically. You may deny the statement 
most peremptorily. I have not seen Blaine to speak to him since 
a long time before the Convention of / 80. We have had no 
communication in writing, through other parties nor in any direct 
or indirect way. The republican party cannot be saved, if it is to 
be saved at all, by tricks and combinations of politicians. I read 
yesterday a circumstantial account of Blaine & I spending a -week 
or two together recently when without doubt we had fixed up 
matters for / 84, Blaine to be President and I Senator from this 
state. The republican party to be saved must have a decisive 
declared policy. It has now no observable policy except to 
peddle out patronage to soreheads in order to bring them back 
into the fold, and avoid any positive declaration upon all leading 
questions. I hope you may be able to get your paper before the 
President and Secretary of State and that they may be induced to 
take strong and declared grounds on the subject it treats of. 

We are all well. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

P. S. Sheridan may be in Washington when you receive the 
proof-sheets of your article. If so get him to revise for you all of 
it preceding his appointment as Colonel. 

U. S. G. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 553 

Letter No. Eighty-nine. 

I had wanted to use some money unexpectedly just 
before returning to my post, and had borrowed it from 
General Grant. The draft spoken of was in repayment. 

Grant had been requested to make a speech at the annual 
meeting of the Army of the Tennessee, and asked me to 
prepare him a summary of its history, which I had forwarded. 

He had promised to pay me a visit with Mrs. Grant at 
Havana, but the circumstances he relates prevented me from 
receiving this great pleasure. I had anticipated important 
results from his study of the situation in Cuba, with such lights 
as my official position and knowledge would have enabled me 
to render, and the change in his plans was a great disappoint- 
ment to me. 

New York City, 
Dec. 24 th , 1883. 

Dear General, — I am in receipt — and have been several 
days — of your letter inclosing draft for $600.00. I also received 
your sketch of the battles in which the Army of the Tennessee 
participated. I am much obliged to you for it. If I conclude 
to write an address for the meeting of the Society next year, of 
the nature I spoke of, it will aid me greatly. In my indolence 
I may postpone the consideration of the subject until too late, 
and may then be compelled to say what I do say, extemporane- 
ously. But even in this case I would have the memorandum 
to refer to. I am afraid now that I will be deprived of the visit 
I had promised myself this winter. You know Ave have a good 
corps of servants, carriages and three teams of horses and we do 
not like to leave the house and all these things to run themselves. 
We had expected Fred and his family to come and enjoy these 
things. But he says now that he cannot leave his own luxuries of 
the same sort. Unless Jesse will move into our house we will 
have to stay and watch them. 

There is nothing new here since you left. It is now understood 
that there is no concealment of Arthur's candidacy. At this time 
no other person looms up so that unless there is a change within 



ce 4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

the next sixty days he will be renominated without much opposi- 
tion. I feel however that he will not get the nomination although 
it is impossible to predict who may. — My family are all well and 
doing well. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Ninety. 
On Christmas Day the news of General Grant's fall on 
the ice the night before was telegraphed to Havana, and I at 
once inquired the extent of his injuries, and received the 
following reply : 

New York, 

Dec. 27, 1883. 

A. Badeau, American Consul- General, Havana, Cuba: 

Painful but not dangerous. 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Ninety-one. 

There was some talk of the physicians sending General 
Grant as far south as Havana, when he should be sufficiently 
recovered from the effects of his fall, and I wrote at once to 
renew my invitation that he would come as my guest. 

In December the editors of The Century Magazine had 
written to me, asking if I could not induce General Grant to 
prepare, "either with or without my assistance," one or two 
military papers for their magazine. I laid the matter before 
him and the last sentence in this letter was his reply : 

New York City, 
Jan'y 21, 'S4. 
Dear General Badeau, — I have your several letters, all 
received on clue time, but as I have to dictate, I will not now 
undertake to answer them. I am still a great sufferer, confined 
to my room and have not had my clothes on since Christmas Eve, 
when I received my injury. It is barely possible that Mrs. Grant 
and I may get down to Bermuda and Havana this winter, if I 
should recover sufficiently to travel in time to make our visit. I 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 



555 



will say, however, that I have no idea of undertaking the task of 
writing any of the articles the Century requests. 
With kind regards of the family. 

Very truly yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Per F. F. Wood. 

Letter No. Ninety-two. 
Mr. George Jones, the proprietor of TJie New York Times, 
was passing a part of the winter in Cuba, and gave a 
report of General Grant's condition that made me feel anx- 
ious, and I had written to make particular inquiries. The 
General's reply shows that Mr. Jones appreciated the injury 
more exactly than the patient, who was always sanguine — until 
he was struck by that blow, which he seemed to know from 
the beginning was mortal. 

United Bank Building, 
Wall St. & Broadway, 
New York, Feb'y 27 1884. 
General A. Badeau, 

Havana, Cuba. 
My Dear General, — I am in receipt of your letter of the 
21st of Feb'y and hasten to write to you to say that Mr. George 
Jones had entirely overestimated my condition. I think the 
injury that I received from my fall has been well this last six 
weeks, but we have had a very horrid winter here, and it has 
given me what I never had before in my life — the rheumatism, 
and it has settled in the injured leg, but on the opposite side 
from the injury, and is very painful and prevents my being able 
to walk except with crutches, and as yet I have only written one 
or two notes myself but have simply confined myself to dictating 
such answers as I have to give to letters. I drive out every good 
day and have been intending to go South for warmer and drier 
weather than we have had here, but I put it off from week to 
week and do not feel sure that I will get away at all. 

Very truly yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
per Frank F. Wood. 



cc6 GRANT IN PEACE. 

Letter No. Ninety-three. 

My situation in Havana had become disagreeable and I 
consulted my friend and former chief as to the course I should 
take. This dispatch is his acknowledgment of the receipt of 

my inquiry. 

New York, Feby 28, 1884. 

Badeau, U. S. Consul, Havana, Cuba. 

Dispatch received. Letter by mail. Grant. 

Letter No. Ninety-four. 

In March General Grant was so much better that he was 
able to travel, and was ordered by his physicians to Washing- 
ton and Fortress Monroe. At this time the Government had 
decided on a course toward Cuba directly the opposite of 
that which I had advised, and one that seemed to me most 
disadvantageous to American interests, while it grossly 
neglected American citizens, who were frequently fined and 
imprisoned without cause. I had also reported culpable 
frauds at the Consulate which the State Department failed 
to investigate; and I became anxious to give up the post. 
A vacancy occurred in the mission to Russia, and I asked 
General Grant whether it would be advisable for him to 
solicit the appointment for me. This letter is his reply. 

The 3d of June was the date fixed for the assembling of 
the Presidential Nominating Convention at Chicago. 

United Bank Building, 

Wall St. & Broadway, 
New York, Mch. 3, 1SS4. 
My Dear General Badeau, — Your dispatch was duly received 
and an answer returned saying letter by mail. — Under the circum- 
stances it is impossible for me to comply with your request. In 
the first place I am sure it would not have benefitted you in the 
least. The President is now openly a candidate for the nomination 
in June next, and knows well that I am opposed to it. Besides 
that, judging from the past I doubt very much whether any 
appointment will be made until after the action of the Chicago 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 557 

Convention in June is known. There are now many vacancies 
existing, some of which have existed for a year and over, and 
among them very important offices for which no nominations have 
yet been sent to the Senate — offices such as judges of United 
States Courts for the States and Territories, United States Mar- 
shals &c, which must cause great inconvenience to the public 
service in the States and Territories where these vacancies exist. 
Further, I would not like to ask a favor from a President whose 
Administration I have been free to criticise and have no doubt 
but what my words have been reported to him very much exag- 
gerated. If I had been able to get out I would have tried to see 
some person or persons who think better of the Administration 
than I do and ask them verbally to- send a note urging your 
appointment, but repeat I am sure to do no good between this 
and the 3rd of June. 

My condition is improving — in fact I believe I am as well as I 
ever was except the rheumatism has set in in the injured part of my 
leg, and the weather this winter has been the worst ever known in 
New York for the rheumatism. I hope in a day or two to get off. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
per Frank F. Wood. 

Letter No. Ninety-five. 

This dispatch was on the same subject as the preceding 
letter. The nominations for President were to be made in 
June, and General Grant thought that the action of Mr. Arthur 
would depend upon the result at Chicago. I did not take 
Grant's advice, for I knew that if Arthur was nominated he 
could snap his fingers at me, while in advance he might fear 
disclosure ; but the hidden influences that opposed me were 
too strong, and my positive assertions of criminality in my 
own Consulate were ignored. 

Fort Monroe, Va., March 14, 1884. 
Badeau, Consul-General, Havana, Cuba. 

Received your letter referred to. I advise patience until after 
June Convention. You understand why positive action need not 
be effected before that. U. S. Grant. 



553 



GRANT IX PEACE. 



Letter No. Ninety-six. 

My situation had by this time become intolerable, and I 
had written again to General Grant, telling him that I should 
be compelled to resign. I had been for years in the habit of 
consulting him upon many of the most important actions of 
my life, and I now thought it proper to take his opinion. 

He was quite right in the view that he took. The Gov- 
ernment, when they found that I opposed them on one point, 
attacked me in every way; the suits in the courts which had 
no possible connection with my dispute with the State Depart- 
ment were pressed in the most offensive manner ; and it took 
me years to vindicate myself from aspersions and insinua- 
tions which the subordinates of Mr. Arthur thought it policy 
to fling abroad. Four separate decisions of the courts in my 
favor have sufficiently proved that the power of the United 
Government can be maliciously and wickedly used to injure 
a public servant who refuses to submit to wrong or counte- 
nance corruption. But General Grant was right in what he 
said ; my matters before the courts would have been better 
served by quiet ; that is, I should have had proper and fair 
decisions without the trouble and expense and delay of the 
law, had I been satisfied to submit in silence to indignity and 
injustice in other affairs. 

Washington, D. C, 

A P 1. S ,h , 1S84. 
|)i \r Badeau, — I have now been here three weeks. We go 
back to New York on Saturday next. I am still on crutches, and 
will probably be on them, for a month or two yet. I have had 
but one opportunity to talk to the Sec. of State and then did not 
bring up your matter because the Sec. had said to me on the street 
that he wanted to come over and see me and have a talk. This 
was when I first arrived. I saw him at the State Dept. a day or 
two after, but there was a clerk in the office and the Asst. Sec. 
came in frequently. I will try to have a conversation before my 
departure. Of course I could not ask anything from the President 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 559 

having taken decided grounds against his nomination. Then 
too it looks as though the appointing power was being worked for 
all it is worth to name delegates to Chicago. I am satisfied that 
the vacant foreign missions will not be filled until after the Chicago 
convention. 

In my telegram to you I scarcely knew what t<^ say in the limit 
of a dispatch. The idea I wanted to convey was that I thought 
it better that you should have no rupture with the department 
unless you wanted to leave the service. You have matters pend- 
ing before the Court of Claims that probably would be better 
served by quiet. The administration has seemed to me to be a 
sort of ad interim one endeavoring to offend no one, and to avoid 
positive action which would draw criticism. Probably the Admin- 
istration has fewer enemies — outspoken ones — than any pre- 
ceding it. It has fewer positive hearty friends than any except 
Hayes possibly. But Arthur will probably go into the convention 
second in the number of supporters when he would not probably 
have a single vote if it was not for his army of officials, and the 
vacancies he has to fill. Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Ninety-seven. 

In April I resigned my position at Havana, and of course 
immediately on my return to New York I saw General Grant. 
Only a few days later occurred the failure of "Grant and 
Ward." 

During the winter the editors of The Century Magasiiie 
had requested me to write an article on Grant's personal 
characteristics so far as they affected his public career. 
When I consulted them in regard to this paper, they renewed 
their endeavors to procure a contribution from himself. I 
was living out of town at the time and he wrote me this 
note in reply to the message of the editors. 

3 East 66 th Street, 

June 4 ,h / 84. 
Dear General, — I do not feel now as though I could under- 
take the articles asked for by the Century. Possibly when I get 



560 GRANT IN PEACE. 

to the country I may feel differently. But I would not have the 

Editors of the Magazine delay on such an uncertainty. When 

you come to the city we will always be glad to see you. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Gen. A. Badeau. 

Letter No. Ninety-eight. 

In June General Grant finally began the preparation of 
an article on the battle of Shiloh, and showed it to me. We 
worked it over together, and when it was, as he thought, com- 
plete, he sent it to the editors ; after which he wrote to me 
as follows : 

Long Branch, N. J., 

July 3 d / 84. 

Dear Badeau, — Yesterday I received a letter from the Editor 
of the Century expressing himself much pleased with my article 
on Shiloh, but expressing the hope that when the proof came to 
me I would put in some of the incidents of the second days fight. 
My recollection is that M c Cook's division was not under fire at 
Shiloh at all. I am not sure about Crittenden's. Did Buell have 
any of his army with him the second day except Nelson's division. 

I commenced on the Vicksburg campaign to-day and have 
made considerable progress so far as pages covered. But I have 
not gone far from my base. 

I do not think I will be able to get through the Wilderness 
before you go to the Mountains. But I will take Vicksburg and 
will be glad to see you here. In fact I do not want to submit my 
article until you have approved it. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. Ninety-nine. 
Grant's literary labors continued and he constantly desired 
my assistance, which of course it was a great pleasure to me 
to render. I visited him repeatedly at Long Branch, and 
spent many days revising the papers he had written and 
discussing the future ones in advance. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. $6l 

On the day when the State Department sent me several of 
its most hostile dispatches to Cuba, one of the Comptrollers 
of the Treasury decided adversely to me a matter that con- 
cerned my London accounts; and the Secretary of the Treas 
ury, Mr. Folger, refused to overrule him, though I was in- 
formed privately by one of his important subordinates that 
Folger held my contention to be right, in law. It is to this 
that General Grant's postscript refers. 

I may be permitted to add that the United States courts 
have three times decided this point in my favor. 

Long Branch, N. J., 
n _ July 9 V 84. 

Dear Badeau,- I have your letter of the 7 * I wri te a little 
daily on the Vicksburg campaign. Probably will have the draft 
completed by this day week. I may not commence the Wilder- 
ness article for some time after, so when you want to run down, or 
rather when your article is ready-after next Wednesday - 1 will 
be ready with Vicksburg and will be glad to see you. 

• My family are all well and join in kindest regards to you. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
P. S. I am glad to hear that the Sec. of the Treasury is with 
you m your controversy with the Comptroller. U. S. G. 

Letter No. One Hundred. 

This letter tells its own story. I have nothing to add 
except that I went promptly at .the call of my old commander 
ready and happy to be of service to him. I was busy at the' 
mountain^ preparing my own article on his character, and 
whether with him or absent, still engaged in his behalf. 

Long Branch, N. J., 

■^ -n J uI y 2lSt > 1884. 

Dear Badeau,-I have worked on Vicksburg every day 
since you left here, from two to five hours each day. It will be 
finished, ready for revision, to-morrow. If you feel like a change 



GRANT IN PEACE. 
562 

of Mountain to sea air for a while I will be glad to see you. If 

you are not through your article you can finish it here. 

Very Truly Yours, 

TJ. S. Grant. 

Letter No. One Hundred and One. 

When I went to General Grant's house after this invita- 
tioahe informed me that he wanted to write his Memo™, 
and particularly desired my assistance. Indeed, he sard he 
houd not think of attempting the work -"hm^ 
-and concurrence; for he had always promised that my 
hist ry should take the place of all he would have to say on 
tie subject. He accordingly made me a forma proposition 
^ich h'e requested rne to keep entirely score, between £m 

1 ™<> not divulo-incr it even to his family ; and 1 accepted 
^siS tin days at his 1«*^££ 
work with him, revising once more what he had wntten 
about Vicksburg and Shiloh, and mapping ouT wha ~y* 
to be done with the articles on Chattanooga and the W Oder 
ness for The Century Magazine. 

Long Branch, N. J., 

July 26 th , 1SS4. 

day 1 will be glad to see you or at least a ■™*- 
Vicksburg, but have not read it over yet. Sh.loh v , 
back to me by the editor with some ««■££_ ^ **£ 

^^0^^^^^;^ because, o„ 

J d ~ie Lis for Europe. Monday, and till she leaves here, 

even-body will be busy with her packing. Tinnersvi ile 

I have written you one letter since you went to Tannersvule. 

Yours Very Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 563 

Letter No. One Hundred and Two. 

I had asked General Grant for the name of a wine mer- 
chant, for a friend, and he sent me this reply. 

The remainder of the note tells its own story. He was 
already contemplating the " Memoir." 

August 26 th , 1884. 
Dear Badeau, — I am just in receipt of your letter of the 
23 rd . I do not remember the name or the address of the Agent 
for the sale of the California Champaign. I have however written 
to Mr. Frank Wood, 2 Wall St. to send it to you. You will prob- 
ably get his letter about as soon as you do this. I gave him your 
address. The name of the wine is Eclipse, Extra. 

I will be very glad to see you when we get to our house in town. 
I shall hope to have "The Wilderness," " Chattanooga," and possi- 
bly the biographical part of my book ready by that time. I do 
not expect to be in the city, to stop, before the last of September. 
Fred has not gone west yet, and may not go. 

Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. One Hundred and Three. 
I had made some suggestions in regard to the publication 
of his work, in which, as I have intimated, I was to have a 
pecuniary interest; and this letter is his reply: 

Sept 13 th , 1884. 
Dear Badeau, — I have your letter of the 9 th instant. There 
will be time enough to make the arrangements for publication 
when my book is completed. Rosswell Smith has been here to 
see. There will be no difficulty about the publication at any time 
if they are to be the publishers. My own opinion is that they 
would be the best publishers. But I will make no committal until 
about the time for publication. I find that firm has emancipated 
itself from the "General Agency" for the sale of books and 
procuring advertisements which enables them to sell books and 
advertise much cheaper than firms using " The Agency," and still 
receive the same themselves that others do. The agency demands 



q£4 GRANT IN PEACE. 

fifty-five per cent, for their services. It cost the Century * * * 
using their own agency. 

I have just finished Chattanooga. I shall go on to complete 
my work up to where the Wilderness Campaign begins, and then 
go back to the beginning. 

When we get to Washington [of course this should be New 
York] I shall have a room for you where you will always be wel- 
come, and I shall be specially glad to have you, as soon as we are 
settled, to go over with me the remaining articles for the Century. 
We will spend a week or ten days with Buck before we settle down 

in the city. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 
Letter No. One Hundred and Four. 

The arrangements at General Grant's house, which he de- 
scribes in this letter, were all carried out. The " small room 
at the head of the stairs " was that in which he wrote the 
greater part of his Personal Memoir. The articles for The 
Century were re-made there, and all the biographical part 
of the first volume, the story of the Mexican war, the begin- 
ning of his military career, indeed, all of the work down to the 
Wilderness Campaign, and even the first draft of that — all 
were written and revised in that room, with me sitting by his 
side. 

I was, however, not ready at that time to go to Him. I was 
writing a book myself, intended to show the circumstances and 
tell the story of my Havana career; and this I was extremely 
anxious should appear during Arthur's Presidency; first, 
because it was more manly to attack the Administration 
while it was in power, and next, because when Arthur went 
out of office the interest of the theme would be greatly 
lessened. So I wrote to General Grant that I preferred to 
remain where T was. in the mountains, a few weeks longer, 
till 1 could complete my own book. This was his reply. 



LETTERS OF GEN. GRANT TO GEN. BADEAU. 565 

New York City, 

Oct. 2 n % 1884. 
Dear Badeau, — We are at home now, and settled, and will be 
glad to see you on Monday next, or any day thereafter that may 
suit your convenience best. I finished the Wilderness Campaign 
about a week before leaving Long Branch and have clone nothing , 
since. I propose however going to work next Monday, and to 
continue busily until I am done. As I told you in a previous 
letter there will be a room for you all the time you want to spend 
with us. There is room also for you to work on your own book. 
I have taken the front room, — the small one — at the head of the 
stairs for my work, and converted the boudoir into a bed room. 
Where I now am there is a table to write upon, and a large desk. 

Very Truly Yours, 

U. S. Grant. 

Letter No. One Hundred and Five. 

General Grant still pressed me to go to him promptly, and 
after the receipt of this letter, in which he seemed so urgent, 
I gave up the completion of my own work and went to his 
house where I remained until the first week in May ; during 
the greater part of his literary labor, and of his illness. He 
had arrived at the close of the Wilderness Campaign when 
he stopped work in March, never expecting to resume it ; but 
I continued revising it, by his desire, for sometime afterward. 
In May I ceased my connection with his book. 

This is the last letter in his own hand that General Grant 

ever wrote to me : 

Oct. 8th, 18S4. 
Dear Badeau, — Your letter just received. The articles I 
have to examine were completed about the 10 th of Sept. Of 
course it will not hurt to let them rest two weeks longer. But I 
will be glad to see you when you are ready to come. You had 
better bring your [own work] with you too when you do come. 
There will be room for you and me both in my room. If there 
is not a table can be put up in your bed-room. 

Yours Truly, 
U. S. Grant. 



CHAPTER LI. 

MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 

No. One. 
GENERAL GRANT TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 

THIS letter of course was written during the period of 
Johnson's dispute with Congress. As the subsequent 
correspondence shows, it was withdrawn, but it is evidence of 
Grant's strong feeling on the subject of the removal of 
Sheridan. 

Headquarters Armies of the United States. 
Washington, Aug. 26, 1867. 

To 

His Excellency, 

A. Johnson, 

President of the United States; 
Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the fol- 
lowing letter, to wit : 

"Executive Mansion, 
Washington, D. C, Aug. 26, 1867. 
Sir, — In consequence of the unfavorable condition of the 
health of Major-General George H. Thomas, as reported to you in 
Surgeon Hasson's dispatch of the 21st instant, my order dated 
August 17, 1S67, is hereby modified so as to assign Major-General 
Winfield S. Hancock to the command of the Fifth Military District, 
created by the Act of Congress passed March 2, 1867, and of the 
Military Department comprising the States of Louisiana and Texas. 
On being relieved from the command of the Department of the 
Missouri by Major-General P. H. Sheridan, Major-General Han- 

(566) 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. cfiy 

cock will proceed directly to New Orleans, Louisiana, and assum- 
ing the command to which he is hereby assigned will, when neces- 
sary to a faithful execution of the laws, exercise any and all powers 
conferred by Acts of Congress upon District Commanders, and 
any and all authority pertaining to officers in command of Military 
Departments. 

Major-General P. H. Sheridan will at once turn over his present 
command to the officer next in rank to himself, and proceeding 
without delay to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, will relieve Major- 
General Hancock of the command of the Department of the 
Missouri. 

Major-General George H. Thomas will, until further orders, 
remain in command of the Department of the Cumberland. 

Very respectfully yours, 

Andrew Johnson. 

Gen'l U. S. Grant, 

Secretary of War, ad interim." 

To it I have the honor to submit the following reply : Gen- 
eral Thomas has not yet acknowledged the receipt of the order 
assigning him to the command of the 5th Military District. My 
recommendation to have the order assigning him to that command 
suspended was based principally on the fact that the yellow fever 
has become epidemic, and some time since orders were issued, at 
the suggestion of General Sheridan, authorizing all officers then 
absent from the 5th Military District, on application to the Adju- 
tant General of the Army, to remain absent until the 15th of Oc- 
tober. A copy of the dispatch on which this order, or circular, 
was based, and the circular itself, were forwarded with my recom- 
mendation for the suspension of General Thomas' order. Before 
substituting General Hancock or any one else for General Thomas 
to command the 5th Military District, his objections, if he makes 
any, should be heard, or else the order for the change should be 
based on other grounds. Unless there are very grave public rea- 
sons, no officer should be sent to Louisiana now. 

Your letter quoted above will leave the 5th Military District 
without a commander of the rank required by law during the period 
necessary to effect the contemplated change of commanders. In 



568 



GRAXT IN PEACE. 



fact, it orders General Sheridan to turn over his command to an 
officer absolutely incompetent by law to fill it. I assume that you 
will change this part of your instructions so as to admit of General 
Sheridan remaining where he now is until relieved by an officer of 
the requisite rank. 

The Act of Congress of July 19, 1867, throws much of the re- 
sponsibility of executing faithfully the reconstruction laws of Con- 
gress on the General of the Army. I am bound by the responsi- 
bility thus imposed on me. I approve all General Sheridan's 
orders to this date, and therefore must insist on instructing his 
successor to carry out those orders so far as I am authorized to do 
so by Acts of Congress. 

Having the responsibility placed on me that I have in regard 
to the execution of the laws of Congress in the districts composing 
the States not represented in Congress, I claim that I ought to be 
consulted as to the agents who are to aid me in this duty. But 
the right existing with the President to name District Commanders, 
I cannot decline to publish the order so far as it affects change of 
commanders. I do protest, however, against the details of the 
order; I do more: I emphatically decline yielding any of the 
powers given the General of the Army by the laws of Congress. 

In the present changes the country sees but one object, no 
matter whether it interprets the objects of the Executive rightly or 
not. The object seen is the defeat of the laws of Congress for 
restoring peace, union, and representation to the ten States now 
not represented. This course affects the peace of the whole coun- 
try, North and South, and the finances of the country, unfavorably. 
The South is the most affected by it, and through the South the 
whole country feels the agitation which is kept up. It is patent to 
every one that opposition to Congress has induced the measures 
which now stand on the statute books as the laws of the land, and 
has induced the loyal people of this country to sustain those meas- 
ures. Will not further opposition necessarily result in more strin- 
gent measures against the South? The people had come to look 
upon the reconstruction policy of the country as settled, whether 
it pleased them or not. They acquiesced in it, and at least the 
great mass of people, irrespective of political creed, desired to see 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 569 

it executed and the country restored to quiet, ready to meet the 
great financial issue before us. 

I would not venture to write as I do if I was not greatly in 
earnest; if I did not see great dangers to the quiet and prosperity 
of the country in the course being pursued. 
I have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

U. S. Grant, 

Sec. of War, 

Ad int. 
No. Two. 
GENERAL GRANT TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, 
Washington, D. C, Aug. 28, 1867. 
His Excellency, 

A. Johnson, 

President of the United States : 
Sir, — I have the honor very respectfully to request permission 
to withdraw my letter of the 26th inst. 

Very Respectfully, 

Your Obt. Servt, 

U. S. Grant, 
Sec'y of War, 

Ad Int. 

No. Three. 

PRESIDENT JOHNSON TO GENERAL GRANT. 

Executive Mansion, 

Washington, D. C., Aug. 28, 1867. 

Str, — I have received your communication of this date, and 

in compliance with your request, return herewith your letter of the 

26th instant. 

Very Respectfully, 

and Truly Yours, 

Andrew Johnson. 

General U. S. Grant, 

Secretary of War, ad interim. 



5/-o 



GRANT IN PEACE. 

No. Four. 
EDWIN BOOTH TO GENERAL GRANT. 



This is the letter referred to in Chapter XIII, on "Grant 
in the Cabinet." 

Barxum's Hotel, 

Baltimore, 
Sept. nth, 

1S67. 
Genl. U. S. Graxt, 

Sir, — Having once received a promise from Mr. Stanton that 
the family of John Wilkes Booth should be permitted to obtain 
the body when sufficient time had elapsed, I yielded to the 
entreaties of my mother and applied for it to the " Secretary of 
War " — I fear too soon, for the letter was unheeded — if, indeed, it 
ever reached him. 

I now appeal to you on behalf of my heartbroken mother — that 
she may receive the remains of her son. 

You, sir, can understand what a consolation it would be to an 
aged parent to have the privilege of visiting the grave of her child, 
and I feel assured that you will, even in the midst of your most 
pressing duties, feel a touch of sympathy for her, one of the 
greatest sufferers living. 

May I not hope, too, that you will listen to our entreaties and 
send me some encouragement — some information as to how and 
when the remains may be obtained ? 

By so doing you will receive the gratitude of a most unhappy 
family, and will — I am sure — be justified by all right thinking 
minds should the matter ever become known to others than 
ourselves. 

I shall remain in Baltimore two weeks from the date of this 
letter — during which time I could send a trustworthy person to 
bring hither and privately bury the remains in the family grounds, 
thus relieving my poor mother of much misery. 

Apologizing for my intrusion, and anxiously awaiting a reply to 
this, I am Sir, with great respect, 

Yr. obt. sevt., 

Edwin Booth. 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 



571 



No. Five. 
GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL GARFIELD. 

This letter was written after Grant's first nomination as 
President. Garfield was in Congress at the time, and the 
communication referred to a previous recommendation of the 
General-in-Chief. 

The address and signature were not preserved in the pen- 
ciled copy taken at the time by one of the aides-de-camp of 
Grant, and transferred to me. The letter was endorsed : 
"Gen. Grant to Gen. Garfield, June 19, 1868. About increase 
of Army pay." 

" In recommending a continuance of the same increase to the 
pay of officers of the army given for the fiscal year just ending, I 
did it on mature deliberation and under the firm conviction that it 
is necessary to their decent support. The pay of the army is now 
what it was at the breaking out of the Rebellion within a few dol- 
lars, and which is offset by the income tax, whilst the cost of 
living has increased in a proportion familiar to every one. 

" P. S. The pay of all, or nearly all, who are employed by the 

Gov't, except army officers, has been increased in the last seven 

years." 

No. Six. 

GENERAL GRANT TO MR. BLEST-GANA, 

Chilian Minister to the United States. 

Mr. Blest-Gana had been the Chilian Minister at Wash 
ington nearly a year when Grant was elected President, and he 
wrote at once to offer his congratulations. I have elsewhere 
told of the respect Grant always showed for the representa- 
tives of the various American republics, and the more than 
amicable relations he strove to maintain with them all, both 
in their personal and official capacities. 

Washington, D. C, 

Nov. 27th, 1868. 
Sr. D. A. Blest-Gana, 

Minister, etc. 
Dear Sir, — Your esteemed congratulatory letter is ree'd. 
Please accept my thanks for the kind expressions it contains both 



cy 2 GRANT IN PEACE. 

towards me personally and to the government of the United 
States. 

The tendency of the world at this time seems to be towards 
free government. May it go on until all are as free as we are, 
and as prosperous. I hope the day is not far distant when 
Republican Governments, especially those on this continent, will 
be in such sympathy with each other as to be a mutual support, 
and be an to all others. 

Please present my kind regards to Madame Blest, and accept 
the assurance of my esteem. Yours Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

No. Seven. 
GENERAL BADEAU TO SENOR SARMIENTO, 
President of the Argentine Republic. 
The following letter was written by the direction of 
General Grant, then President-elect, who did not, however, 
desire to make himself the recommendation which the corres- 
pondence suggests. Sarmiento had been Minister of the 
Argentine Republic to the United States, and in that capacity 
had made the acquaintance of Grant. I also had known him 
as Minister, on terms which made the form of this communi- 
cation not inappropriate. 

Headquarters Army of the United States, 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 29, 1868. 
His Excellency 

Senor Don D. F. Sarmiento, 

President of the Argentine Republic: 
My Dear Sir, — I have lately read in the newspapers that the 
Argentine Republic proposes offering the command of its armies 
to one of the successful generals of the United States in the recent 
war. It would of course be impertinent in me to make any sug- 
gestion in a matter of so much importance ; but if there should be 
any foundation for the report alluded to, I am sure you will be 
glad to know the opinions of General Grant I have several times 
heard him say that lie hoped in case such a plan should be carried 
out, that the Argentine Republic would secure the services of a 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 



573 



soldier of real talent and not any of the adventurers who would be 
most likely to be pressed upon its attention. If there should be 
any probability like that I mention, the advice of some very 
prominent American soldier would doubtless assist materially in 
furthering the objects of the Argentine Republic. 

Trusting that this note may not be deemed officious, and 
making my warmest congratulations, my dear Sir and President, 
upon your accession to the chief magistracy of your country, I am, 
with the best wishes for the success of your administration and 
the prosperity of your people, 

Your obedient servant, 

Adam Badeau, 

Brvt. Brig.- Gen. and A.D.C. 

to General Grant. 

No. Eight. 

GENERAL BADEAU TO MR. BURLINGAME, 

Chinese Minister, etc., etc. 

This letter, like its predecessor in this series, was written 
by the direction of General Grant, then President-elect ; and 
of course was submitted to him before it was sent. Burlin- 
game had originally been United States Minister to China, 
but resigned that post in order to accept a roving but import- 
ant commission, that of Chinese Minister both to this country 
and to the prominent European Governments. It was his 
object to establish more intimate relations between the 
Chinese and the Western powers, and had he lived he might 
have initiated a policy of importance to the world and of 
especial advantage to this country. He visited first the 
United States, and then England, France, Prussia, and 
Russia, but at St. Petersburg his career was suddenly cut 
short at its very meridian. His death was a loss to modern 
civilization. 

While in this country in 1868, he established relations 
with General Grant that were unusually cordial. Upon the 
death of Rawlins he was very desirous to enter Grant's 



cja GRANT IN PEACE. 

Cabinet, and, as I was then returning to America, he com- 
missioned me to say to the President that he would willingly 
resign his diplomatic position for the sake of a place in the 
United States Government. But Grant appointed Belknap. 

Headquarters Army of the United States, 

Washington, D. C, Dec. 28, 1868. 
Hon. Anson Burlingame, 

Chinese Minister, 

My Dear Sir, — General Grant directs me to write to you and 
say that Dr. Wm. Martin, Professor of International Law in the 
Imperial College of China, has inquired of him whether Brevet 
Major-General Emory Upton, an officer of the American army, 
would be a suitable person to instruct the Chinese army in our 
tactics. General Grant has recommended General Upton very 
warmly and highly, and desires me to write to you on the matter. 
General Upton is the author of the system of tactics now in use in 
our army ; he is a young man, not more than thirty years old, who 
made a distinguished reputation for ability and energy during the 
late war ; and General Grant, though he would willingly recom- 
mend other young officers of equal merit and distinction, would 
give higher recommendations to none than to him, and sees a 
peculiar fitness in him for this peculiar position. He also is 
favorably impressed with the plan in itself, and trusts that you 
may find equal advantages apparent to yourself with those which 
he perceives, both for China and America. 

I avail myself of this opportunity to say how closely your 
countrymen have watched your career in England, and how much 
admiration has been extorted by the sagacity and skill with which 
you have met and overcome peculiar obstacles. 
With great respect and regard, 

My dear Sir, I am 

Yours very sincerely, 
Adam Badeau, 
/>'>.-/. Brig.-Gerfl. and A.D.C. 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 575 

No. Nine. 
GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BUELL. 

This letter is its own explanation. 

Headquarters Armies of the United States, 

Washington, D. C, Dec. 29th, 1865. 
General, — Your letter of the 27th inst, calling my attention to 
a letter which you wrote me in August last, is received. The letter 
referred to reached my office in my absence from the city, and was 
placed in a private desk and never came to my attention until it 
was handed to me by a staff-officer on the cars whilst on my way 
to New York city early in November last. I put the letter in my 
pocket expecting to answer it while in New York. Not finding 
time there, however, the letter remained pocketed and has either 
been mislaid or lost. I will answer the letter from memory, as far 
as possible. 

I have no recollection of any conversation in Springfield, Mass., 
or elsewhere during last summer, in which your name was men- 
tioned. I am often questioned* however, about this officer and 
that one and in such cases endeavor not to do them injustice. 
Conversations are rarely quoted correctly and in the case referred 
to by you I know could not have been, for I am made to say things 
which I never believed. For instance in regard to your want of 
ability to command in the presence of an enemy or in battle. 

I have always thought, and frequently expressed the opinion 
that in that precise case you would do as well as almost any 
General that could be selected. I did receive a telegraphic 
dispatch from Gen. Halleck, dated more than two weeks before the 
attack at Pittsburgh Landing, Tenn., from which or from the 
courier bringing it I gathered the idea saying that you were within 
four days' march of Savannah, and would be up in that time. 
That dispatch was telegraphed to your care, if I remember rightly, 
and sent by you to me by courier. At all events, the dispatch 
came by way of Nashville to the Army commanded by you and 
thence to me by courier. This fact I may have mentioned and 
drawn the conclusion that if you had been up in the time men- 
tioned or double the time, that instead of being attacked I would 
have taken the initiative. On the. subject of your heart never 



c 7 5 GRANT IN PEACE. 

having been in the cause I must certainly have been entirely mis- 
understood. I supposed you to be as earnest at the beginning of 
the war, and whilst in command, as any other officer engaged in it 
in the maintenance of the Government. Your own letters pub- 
lished since have rather given the idea that you wanted the Union 
saved in a particular way, and that way different from the one 
which was being pursued. I drew such a conclusion from them 
and state so frankly, although I have no recollection of ever having 
mentioned the fact in such a way as to have my opinion get into 
print. Hut if I did, what I may have said was based upon your 
own writing, or what purported to be, and which the whole com- 
munity had access to. 

I do not remember any of the other points alluded to in the 
newspaper article which you sent. 

I have in the course of the war been the subject of very severe 
newspaper criticisms, and never appealed to the press for vindica- 
ti n and now very much dislike to be called on to deny or affirm 
the statements of some irresponsible reporter without the slightest 
idea of who he is. But I shall always be much more ready to 
correct an injustice done another than if I were the injured party. 

Very Respectfully, 

U. S. Grant. 

No. Ten. 

GENERAL GRANT TO MR. RANGABE. 

Greek Minister to the United States. 

Mr. Rangabe had been Greek Minister to the United 
States in 1867, and then made the acquaintance of General 
Grant, who esteemed him highly. In 1868 he returned to 
his own country to take an important post in the Government, 
but did not relinquish his appointment to the United States ; 
his son remaining in Washington as acting Charge" d'Affaires. 
Upon the election of General Grant to the Presidency the 
elder Rangabe" sent his congratulations from Athens, and 
they were presented by his son. The following letter is the 
acknowledgment of Grant. 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 577 

Headquarters Army of the United States, 

Washington, D. C, Feb'y 15, 1869. 
My Dear Sir, — Your esteemed and nattering congratulatory 
letter of the 20th of January, accompanied by an equally compli- 
mentary note from your son, is received. I sincerely hope that 
my country may continue to deserve the high stand among the 
nations of the earth which you ascribe to it, and be regarded as 
the friend of those struggling for freedom and self-government, 
the world over. 

For myself I can only strive to deserve the confidence which 
so great a nation has bestowed on me. 

Thanking you for the kind expressions contained in your letter, 
and hoping for your nation, and for you individually, the greatest 
prosperity, I subscribe myself, 

"Very Truly and Respectfully, 

Your Obedient Servant, 

U. S. Grant. 
His Excellency, 

M. A. R. Rangabe, 

E. E. and M. Plenipotentiary, 

of His Majesty, the King of the Greeks. 

No. Eleven. 
CHARLES SUMNER TO GENERAL BADEAU. 

This letter was written while Motley was Minister at Lon- 
don and I was Assistant-Secretary of Legation. It is inter- 
esting for the defense of Sumner's famous speech which it 
contains, and which he desired I should render to his English 
friends. 

For Sumner was always anxious about the effect of his 
rhetoric, although the anxiety never induced him to restrain 
its violence. He was somewhat hysterical, even womanish 
in his temperament, as men of his type of genius often are. 
He suffered and enjoyed acutely. An orator, a student, a 
lover of pictures and books and society, he was confident in 
the graces and charms of his person and behavior, and both 
were distinguished. His face and form were full of noble, 
37 



5 7 S GRANT IN PEACE, 

manly beauty, and his manner was attractive and sometimes 
irresistible. In the latter part of his life he was used to the 
adulation of a select circle which wafted incense to him as 
worshipers do to a demi-god, and he snuffed it up eagerly. 
I have seen clever women ■ — women with names that are 
known in literature and society, literally sitting at his feet 
and waiting to catch every syllable that dropped from his 
lips — lips full of elegant and sometimes eloquent language, 
in conversation as well as public speech. 

He had a certain flow of not very original ideas and 
images, an impassioned, though somewhat stilted manner and 
utterance, and a rhetorical arrangement of expression that 
captivated many and deceived himself as well as others into 
the belief that his oratory was of a higher order than was 
really the case. It smelt too much of the lamp. 

His history also excited an interest that was adventitious. 
He had been ostracized in Boston society, and for a long time 
in Washington as well, because of his anti-slavery sentiment, 
and to the last there were many who refused to receive or 
invite him — even after his marriage. But the dastardly 
attack of Brooks evoked a general sympathy which the con- 
tinued suffering of the victim kept alive. Then when the 
war broke out and the opinions that Sumner had advocated 
became triumphant he was naturally looked upon as a leader. 
But he was never fitted for more than oratory. He was no 
statesman, no practical man in affairs, and as opposite as 
possible in quality and character to Grant. Neither indeed 
could fully understand or appreciate the other, although each 
had originally respected the achievements or acquirements 
that were so unlike his own. But when the egotism of Sum- 
ner came in contact with the stubbornness of Grant the 
result was inevitable. Sumner used all the arts of the 
rhetorician in his attacks on Grant ; he was unfair, illogical, 
and untrue; and Grant resented the injustice, and punished 
it relentlessly. It was a pity that men who had both done 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 



579 



honor to the State at the critical hour of its existence should 
afterward have been thrown into such antagonism ; but their 
strife was so bitter and their passions became so aroused that 
the excellence of each was obscured to the other's view ; and 
neither at last could admit or perceive the merit of him with 
whom he contended. Nevertheless of the two, the man of 
deeds did far more justice to his antagonist than the man of 
words ; and naturally the man of action conquered. 

Boston, 26th July, '69. 

My Dear General, — I am obliged by your good letter, but I 
have for some time doubted if it were advisable at least for me to 
try any longer against the spawn of misrepresentation in England. 
My own system is so essentially pacific, I am so near a Quaker in 
my convictions, and I have such ties with England even now that 
I cannot allow personal indignities to sway me in an important 
public duty. Whatever may be said there, I shall hope to keep the 
peace. 

But I confess that this recent outburst of dishonest attack, 
when nobody has read the speech, followed by falsehood and 
abuse of every line, with the bad temper, haughty tone, and brutal 
insolence, which seemed almost universal, has disheartened me. 
How, then, can the question be settled peacefully ! I am the 
most pacific advocate on our side. Others who take it up, will 
touch a different cord. 

Already many look to war. B. F. B. told me recently that it 
must come, as the people never would give back, and everybody is 
profoundly convinced that England is equitably liable for several 
years of our war with its deaths and taxation. George Bemis writes 
me from Europe that he is disheartened, for he does not see any 
solution except that of war. I do; and I am not afraid of war, if 
our Administration will make England see and understand our case. 
This is no time to disown an authoritative statement, made under 
peculiar circumstances and adopted, as speech never was before, as 
the voice of the Senate and of the country. If we give back there 
are others who will take our places, who will not give back. It is our 
duty to conduct this debate closely, and make England know the 



5 So GRANT IN PEACE. 

wrong we have received and the convictions of our people. When 
this is done, we can take up the question of remedy more or less ; 
but first the grievance must be stated in length and breadth. 

If I reply to your inquiries, it is because I would not seem in- 
different to your desires. 

You can report whether I represented the Senate and the 
country, — and the President too. I think you can say that never 
was any doubt of it. This point is stated well in Senator 
Anthony's article, and also in Mr. P. W. Chandler's, in the Adver- 
tiser^ both of whom belonging to the most moderate school, insist 
that the country agrees with me. 

Of course you know that the phrase " abject apology," and 
nothing like it can be found in the speech. I never had the idea. 
But my speech makes no demand, whether apology or money ; not a 
word of apology, not a cent of money. It shows that we have 
suffered incalculable damages for which we have never received 
compensation or acknowledgment, and refers to other cases where 
money was paid with an apology. But I ask nothing. It is 
humiliating to be obliged to write such a commentary on myself. 

The members of the Liberal party who criticise my silence on 
their services, have never read my speech, or like Forster, have for- 
gotten it, so that they attribute to me what was not in it, or 
require in it what it could not properly contain. The treaty under 
consideration was not with the Liberal party, but with England, 
corporate England — represented by the Government. It was the 
acts of the Government that I called in question, and I did not 
step aside to censure Tories or to praise Liberals, not even those 
w<>rking-men, or Mr. liright, who deserve so much and have 
always had my heart. Forster made this unworthy criticism at the 
same time he said that I complained of the " upper classes," and 
then another taking up the statement of Forster, said that my in- 
dictment was against "Belgravia," — when I indicted nobody but 
the British Government. Had the speech been read generally such 
absurdities could not have found a market. The honest sense of 
John Bull would have been indignant at the misrepresentation. 

Mr. Motley knows, you know, everybody who knows the least of 
me, how my soul has clung to John Bright for years and how it 
has throbbed in unison with him. To him and partners I give 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 581 

honor and praise perpetually. Little did I think, when without 
any seeking, I found myself obliged to state the case of my 
country, that any English Liberal would complain, because I did 
not embody praise of some of his friends. The case was too 
grave, and I was too serious. I had a duty, which was to explain 
the occasion of our profound sense of wrong and this I did gently 
and simply. I would ask any Englishman how he would state 
the American case more gently or simply, with less of unkindness 
or menace. The harshness is in the case, not in me. If English- 
men would not put off upon me, as Don Quixote did upon Sancho 
Panza, the retributive lashes which their conduct justly deserves, 
we should be much nearer a settlement. 

As for the recognition of belligerency being " friendly," Mr. 
Forster leaves the House of Commons, rushes to the Commons 
Library, takes down Wheaton, and finds it "friendly." By such 
sciolism was this terrible step determined. The question of bel- 
ligerency is the most difficult of unsolved questions in Interna- 
tional Law. When Wheaton wrote and died, next to nothing was 
known on it. No rule had been established; no rule is established 
now, unless the English precedent be accepted as a final expres- 
sion of the law. This I think bad for the peace of the world, and 
for International Law. Talk with Mr. Bemis on the " friendly " 
character of that concern. He knows its history. I never saw 
Mr. Seward more like a caged tiger, or more profuse of oaths in 
every form that the English language supplies than when prancing 
about the room denouncing the Proclamation of Belligerency, 
which he swore he would send to hell. To my mind the best 
point in his whole prolonged service at the State Deptartment was 
his persistency in holding England responsible for the Proclama- 
tion. I never thought him judicially clear on the question 
whether the Proclamation alone was ground of damages or the 
Proclamation with the detriment from the ships and blockade-run- 
ners. The latter has always been my ground. We cannot give 
up the liability on this account, without weakening our case 
immeasurably. 

It is easy to see that the English desire to limit the case to the 
Alabama. I embrace all the ships. But negligence perhaps can 
be shown only in the case of the Alabama. For the other ships 



-32 GRANT IN PEACE. 

we rely primarily upon the Proclamation, without which they could 
not June been built, so that the Proclamation becomes the first link 
in our case. 

Put I write on — too much, and now stop. I hope you enjoy 
London. Society there is the best in the world. 

If I can serve you in any way, command me, and let me know 
from time to time how the drama appears. Pe frank always 
where it is possible with Englishmen, and let them know our case, 
so that when it is presented again, they will not treat an honest, 
well-meant effort with indignity. Ever sincerely yours, 

Charles Sumner. 

I hope Air. Moran is well. I know not what I have written ; 
but I commit it to your discretion. 

No. Twelve. 
VISCOUNT HALIFAX TO GENERAL BADEAU. 

This letter was written while I was at the Executive 
Mansion, after my return from England in 1869. Of course 
I understood that it was intended for the President, and 
showed it to Grant and the Secretary of State; and Lord 
Halifax told me afterward that this was what he had expected. 
The English view of the points at issue was hardly ever 
better stated, and the paper came with more force because 
its writer had been in the Government which had arrested 
the Rams ; while its significance now is increased by the fact 
that he was also Lord Privy Seal in that which negotiated 
the Treaty of Washington. He died in 1SS6, full of years 
and honors. 

The article referred to was written by me and published 
both in England and America. In England, it was signed; 
but Lord Halifax had evidently not seen the foreign publi- 
cation. 

HlCKLETON, 

April 22, 1S70. 

l)i \k General Badeau, — When I wrote to thank you for 

me a number of Harper's Magazine, I had not read the 

article in it on "Our Relations with England." I do not know 

whether I am warranted in guessing who the author of the article 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 583 

is, but whoever he may be, everybody who is anxious to promote 
harmony and good feeling between our two countries must be 
deeply indebted to him for so valuable a contribution towards fur- 
thering an object so essential to the welfare of both. 

I confess, however, to being somewhat disheartened by the 
account given in the article of the general prevalence of a state of 
feeling on your side of the water not very favorable to the restora- 
tion of cordial feeling towards this country, and by which probably 
the language of your Government is in some degree influenced. 

I had thought of writing to you in the autumn in consequence 
of some expressions as to this country in a note to your book, and 
I am now the more wishful to do so in consequence of what I have 
learnt from that article. I have been a good deal occupied since 
I read it till I came clown into the country for our Easter holiday. 
I write to you from here, having some leisure, that I might put be- 
fore so fair and impartial a mind as yours one or two considerations 
which I venture to think ought to weigh against the feeling indi- 
cated in the article. The two principal matters which are stated 
to weigh against .us in the mind of the citizens of the United States 
are (1.) The supposed feeling of England in favor of the Confed- 
erate States. (2.) The action of our Government in two instances. 

1. The early recognition of the belligerent rights of the South. 

2. Allowing the Alabama to get out of Liverpool. 
In the first place, as to the feeling in England. 

The article truly states that there was a great division of opinion 
in this country. London Society probably favored the South. The 
Country generally favored the North. Taking the members of the 
House of Commons who gave utterance to their opinions, Mr. 
Gregory and Mr. Roebuck spoke in favor of the South. Mr. Bright 
and Mr. Forster in favor of the North. 

Surely when in the United States there was so large a body on 
the other side, people in this country might, without bringing upon 
England the hostility of the people of the United States, hold dif- 
ferent opinions as to the parties in the United States. Again, is it 
not unjust on the part of the people of the United States to find 
fault with the English people generally, and to complain of Eng- 
lishmen as a whole because some of them entertained views which 
the successful party in the United States condemned ? The only 



eg, GRANT IN PEACE. 

point on which England as a whole might have been expected to 
agree with the Northerners would have been that the war was against 
slavery. So some of your statesmen considered it. But that was 
not the view stated by your Government for some time after the 
commencement of the Avar. It was a contest on the part of the 
North to preserve the Union, and a very legitimate purpose for 
them to contend for; but upon such a question Englishmen might 
be allowed, without offense to the United States, to entertain an 
opinion on one side or the other, as they might have done some 
years ago as to the separation of Holland and Belgium. 

I come now to the action of the Government. 

I will not enter into the question of what the opinions of indi- 
vidual members of the Government may have been, only observing 
that I do not think the statement in the article is correct. With- 
out going into that question, the material point is, whether the ac- 
tion of the Government as a Government, was unfair or unfriendly 
to the North. 

I say for myself, as a member of that Government, that I never 
from the first moment entertained a shadow of a doubt as to what 
it was our duty to do. We were bound to maintain the strictest 
neutrality, and to avoid anything which could involve us in the 
contest. Most indisputably that was the view adopted by the 
Government, as a Government — and I believe that we so acted. 

i. As to acknowledging the belligerent rights of the South. 

It is an undisputed principle of International law that a nation 
cannot blockade its own ports. Blockades can only be established 
against an Enemy. The question was considered and discussed 
in this country at great length from 1834 to 1846 or 1847 in refer- 
ence to a blockade established by the French of the coast at Port- 
endis, on the west coast of Africa. We denied the right of the 
French to blockade a port where they exercised sovereignty; then- 
answer was that the coast blockaded was subject to the sovereign 
of Morocco. It was a small matter, and was referred to the king 
of Prussia; but the principle was admitted. 

When the report of your blockade was received in this country, 
application was made by merchants to the Government to know 
whether they might proceed to the Southern ports, and whether 
they would be protected if they did so. What answer were we to 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. rg^ 

give ? If we had answered according to the view now put forward 
in the United States of what our conduct should have been, we 
must have answered that there could be no legal impediment to 
their going. 

Now, do consider what in all probability would have happened 
if we had given that answer. Many vessels would have gone to 
the Southern ports. Your officers would, under the orders of your 
Government, have stopped or seized them. Suppose any English 
vessel had resisted, and that your officers had fired into her and 
caused serious damage or killed some of her crew. That is no 
improbable case. What do you think would have been the state 
of feeling in this country ?*and what would have been the conduct 
of the Government? We must have demanded reparation for an 
injury to our merchants by a breach of International law, and en- 
forced it, if necessary at the risk of war. Can one even now con- 
template such a state of things without the most serious alarm ? 
The course we did take avoided all risk of such a crisis. We ac- 
knowledged the belligerent rights of the South, and that acknowl- 
edgment enabled us to acquiesce in your blockade, and to give the 
immediate answer to our merchants that they were entitled to no 
protection if they attempted to break the blockade. 

Surely, so far from our conduct having given any cause of com- 
plaint, it ought to have been accepted as the most convincing 
proof of our anxiety to avoid any risk of rupture with the North. 

The Alabama case is more complicated, and the result of her 
operations on the trade of the North has not unnaturally created 
a strong feeling in the United States. But the conduct of our 
Government must be judged on the state of the case when she lelt 
Liverpool. 

Your law and our law on these matters are substantially the 
same. Most of the recent discussions on questions of International 
law have been in your Courts, to which we always look as authority, 
from the high character of your legists and great judges. I have 
not the means, in the country, of referring to all the particulars of 
the well known case of the Santissima Trinidad, decided in your 
courts. Unless, however, my memory fails me, she had been em- 
ployed as a vessel of war, and she left one of your ports fully 
manned, armed, and equipped for war, proceeded to Buenos Ayres, 



586 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



was sold to the Insurgent Government ready armed and manned, 
and acted at once as a Buenos Ayrean vessel of war. 

This your courts decided to be, so far as the equipment, man- 
ning, and arming in an United States port and sale of the vessel 
so equipped is concerned, to be a legitimate commercial transaction. 

How far short of this are the circumstances of the Alabama ? 
She was partly fitted for carrying guns, as any merchantman may 
fairly be ; she was only partly manned when she left Liverpool, 
apparently for a trial or short trip. 

It was only after she had got out of English jurisdiction that 
she was put into that state of full equipment for war in which the 
Santissima Trinidad actually was, when she left the port of the 
United States. 

Evidently anything which would have brought the Alabama 
within the law was very doubtful. There cannot be better proof of 
this than that when we seized the Alexandra we were unable to 
make our case good in a court of law. We subsequently seized 
the Rams, of whose warlike character there could be no doubt — 
but the proceeding was so questionable in the opinion of the law- 
yers, that we ultimately bought them in order to avoid going into 
court. 

Now, surely it is no just cause of serious complaint that in the 
first case of the kind with which we had to deal we should have 
been cautious in taking a step which would in all probability have 
turned out to be an illegal measure. That is the utmost that can 
be alleged against what we did. Our illegal seizure of the Alex- 
andra and of the Rams is proof enough that we had no indisposi- 
tion to interpose. Am 1 unreasonable in thinking that the Gov- 
ernment of one free country might judge less harshly the conduct 
of the Government of another free country when it hesitates to 
overstep the boundary of the law. 

I will not add an unnecessary word to a letter already too long, 
beyond the assurance of my sincere esteem, and of the pleasure 
which it would give me if I succeed in showing you how anxious 
we were to act in such a way as to preserve that attitude of com- 
plete neutrality which it was our duty to maintain. 

I have not given up all hope of seeing you in England again 



MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. ^gy 

ere long, and it will give me great pleasure to renew so agreeable 
an acquaintance. Believe me, 

Yours very truly, 
Major-General Badeau. Halifax. 

No. Thirteen. 
GENERAL GRANT TO GENERAL BABCOCK. 

This letter Babcock forwarded to me because of my 
interest in its contents. It shows two of Grant's traits which 
I have elsewhere described ; his carelessness with his papers 
and his disposition toward leniency in criticising other soldiers. 

Dear General, — The inclosed chapter of Badeau's book was 
handed to me just before leaving Chicago. Having a large mail 
before me at the time, which I was then engaged in reading and 
answering, I put the chapter and letter in my overcoat pocket and 
forgot all about it until after coming East, when I was asked by 
some one " when Badeau's second volume would be out." For the 
first time then since receiving it, it flashed upon my mind that I 
had rec'd a chapter to review. I was about to write back to Fred. 
to look and see if he could find the missing paper. Before doing 
so, however, I made a search of all my pockets and found it as 
stated. I have written to B, but said nothing about the contents of 
the chapter under review. In fact wrote my letter before reading 
it. It is all right except I would like to see Burnside let off a little 

easier. Yours, 

U. S. G. 
No. Fourteen. 
THE COMTE DE PARIS TO GENERAL BADEAU. 

This letter was written after I had forwarded the letter of 
General Grant given in chapter LI, page 498. 

Chateau d'Eu, 
Seine Inferieure, 

May nth, 1878. 

My Dear General, — I thank you very much for your letter 

of April 21st, and for the most valuable information which you 

have given me. I had, of course, the greatest doubts about the 

accuracy of General Pemberton's statement, as it was so much at 



583 



GRANT IN PEACE. 



variance with your own account ; but coming from such high 

authority I could not put it aside without mentioning it to you. 

I am very grateful to General Grant lor the trouble he took to 

answer himself, and to give such a detailed account of what 

happened between him and General Pemberton. I regret very 

much not to be able to go myself to Paris to thank him ; but the 

Countess de Paris having given birth to a daughter four days ago 

only, I cannot leave her presently. Believe me, my dear General, 

Yours Truly, L. P. D. Orleans, 

Comtc de Paris. 
No. Fifteen. 

GENERAL GRANT TO J. H. WORK, ESQ. 

Mr. Work had a copy of my Military History of Grant 
especially bound for his library, and asked General Grant to 
write something in it to attest his opinion of its merits ; and 
this letter is the inscription it contains. 

New York City, 

Dec. 22, 1881. 
J. H. Work, Esq., — This book was revised by me, chapter by 
chapter, as it was being prepared for the publishers. It was sub- 
mitted for a similar review also to Generals Porter and Babcock, 
two of the staff colleagues of the author. In addition to this, all 
those chapters treating of events in which Generals Sherman and 
Sheridan held detached commands were submitted to those 
officers. The author had access to the Government and captured 
and purchased archives. He also read and consulted all that was 
published on both sides, before and during the time he was 
writing this book, with the view of getting the truth. So far as I 
am capable of judging, this is a true history of the events of 
which it treats. The opinions expressed of men are the author's 
own, and for which no one else is responsible. 

Very Truly, 

U. S. Grant. 

P. S. General Geo. H. Thomas was dead before the events 
in which he held detached commands took place, otherwise, those 
chapters relative to events after March, 1S64, in which he took a 
leading part would have been submitted to him. 

U. S. G. 



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